BOSTON — Representative Edward J. Markey, who has spent almost four decades in the House, has cleared the first hurdle in his drive to become a United States senator, easily defeating a fellow congressman, Stephen F. Lynch, in Massachusetts's Democratic primary on Tuesday.
On the Republican side, Gabriel E. Gomez, a former member of the Navy SEALs and a newcomer to politics, won a three-way primary.
He and Mr. Markey will face off in a special general election on June 25 to fill the Senate seat left vacant by John Kerry, a Democrat who resigned this year to become President Obama's secretary of state. Given the Democrats' strength in Massachusetts, Mr. Markey would have to be considered the early favorite.
The Senate race offers voters a choice between Mr. Markey's decades of experience in Washington — he was first elected to Congress in 1976 — and Mr. Gomez's compelling life story. The son of Colombian immigrants, he became a Navy pilot and a member of the SEALs, attended Harvard Business School and is now a private equity investor.
Mr. Markey, 66, who has one of the most liberal voting records in Congress, has promised to continue his fight for gun control, a clean environment, abortion rights and Mr. Obama's health care law.
Mr. Gomez, 47, ran more on an outsider platform of institutional reform. He promised he would "reboot" Congress by imposing a pay freeze, term limits and a lifetime ban on lobbying.
Democrats wasted no time in revealing how they would go after Mr. Gomez, saying they would cast him as an extremist whose views are antithetical to Massachusetts.
"Republicans were looking for the second coming of Scott Brown," the Markey campaign said in a statement, referring to the moderate Republican who won the last special Senate election in Massachusetts, in 2010. "Instead, they got Gabriel Gomez, a pro-life Republican who was the spokesman for a 'super PAC' that attacked President Obama over the killing of Osama bin Laden."
Democrats also noted that Mr. Gomez opposes a ban on assault weapons, even after the massacre of children in Newtown, Conn., and supports cutting Social Security.
But Mr. Gomez was equally swift in signaling how he intended to beat Mr. Markey: by portraying him as a career politician who is part of the old order.
In his victory speech, Mr. Gomez, noting the year Mr. Markey was first elected to the House, ran through a litany of hallmarks from 1976, including the Gerald Ford presidency and eight-track tapes.
"It was a lifetime ago," he said. "Einstein famously said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Congress has enough politicians. If we keep sending politicians to Washington, we will keep getting the same results."
Mr. Gomez opened and closed his speech, delivered at an inn in Cohasset, his elegant hometown on the South Shore, with phrases in Spanish. In between, he reminded his supporters, "This election is about the future and not about the past."
Mr. Markey warned in his victory speech that Republican money would be soon be flooding the state.
"Karl Rove, the Koch brothers and the Republicans see this election as their first shot at stopping President Obama's agenda and regaining control of the Senate," Mr. Markey told hundreds of supporters at a Boston hotel. "Mark my words: These outside special interests are going to march right into Massachusetts beginning tomorrow morning."
He called on Mr. Gomez to sign the "people's pledge" that Senate candidates signed last year to keep special interests from funneling unlimited, undisclosed money into the state, but Mr. Gomez has already said he believes such money should be allowed as a demonstration of free speech.
Both Mr. Markey and Mr. Gomez dispatched their opponents with relative ease.
Mr. Markey beat Mr. Lynch, who was first elected to the House in 2000 and is the most conservative member of the state's Congressional delegation, 58 percent to 42 percent. Democratic primary voters in Massachusetts tend to be liberal, and Mr. Markey more clearly represented their views.
"Stephen Lynch is too conservative for me on women's issues," said Alexis Veith, 31, a stay-at-home mother in Quincy, as she voted for Mr. Markey. She added of Mr. Lynch, "He seems more like a pro-union Republican than a true Democrat."
Jim Johnson, 65, an author, said he supported Mr. Markey because he liked his stands on gun control and abortion. "This is Lynch's district," he noted outside his polling place in downtown Boston, "but he's on the wrong side of the issues."
Mr. Gomez won 51 percent of the vote in his primary race against Michael J. Sullivan, a former United States attorney, who won 36 percent, and State Representative Daniel B. Winsow, who trailed with 13 percent.
Voters who supported Mr. Gomez said they liked his service to the country and his fresh approach. Bill and Martha Roach, both 48 and chemists in Quincy, were among them.
"Former Navy SEAL sounded good to me," Mr. Roach said. His wife added, "He's actually done something for our country."
Even before the outcome was clear, the state Democratic Party planned a "unity breakfast" for Wednesday to bring the Markey and Lynch camps together.
John Walsh, chairman of the state party, said it was "important to come together immediately" to coordinate for the general election and avoid a repeat of 2010, when Democrats were caught sleeping at the wheel.
Jess Bidgood contributed reporting from Cohasset, Mass.
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