Two front-running Democrats won competitive primaries for Congress last night, giving their party a strong chance at picking up one Republican-held House seat and retaining another seat that has, in the last few decades, trended strongly Democratic.

In Virginia, Fairfax County Board of Supervisors chairman Gerry Connolly overcame former Rep. Leslie Byrne and two other candidates to win the right to compete for retiring Republican Tom Davis's Eleventh District seat. Connolly took nearly 58% of the vote to Byrne's 33%. He will need party unity in the Fall, though, as Republicans still have a good chance at keeping the seat. President Bush won Davis's district by a seven-point margin in 2000 and by just 2,000 votes in 2004.

Davis rarely had a problem keeping his seat, though he won a surprisingly narrow 55%-44% majority in 2006. Another former chairman of the county board of supervisors, Davis decided to retire after exploring, then dropping, his bid for the GOP nomination for Senate. Since his decision to retire, Davis has become an outspoken critic of House Republican political ills and has been tapped to help the party mitigate its losses come November.

To do so, he may have to focus on his own seat first. His hand-picked successor, businessman Keith Fimian, is a political unknown, and could face an uphill climb against the better-known Connolly in the coming months. Still, Fimian has proved an apt and skilled fundraiser, pulling in more than $900,000 so far, more than Connolly by virtue of the more than $300,000 Fimian donated to himself. Too, without primary opposition, Fimian will begin the general with a big financial head start.

The race to replace Rep. Tom Allen, who is running for Senate against Republican Susan Collins, was likely decided last night in the Democratic primary. Former Common Cause President Chellie Pingree held a 15-point lead with 85% of precincts reporting as of this morning, giving her the Democratic nomination in Maine's First Congressional District, based in Portland and including Augusta, the state capital.

Pingree took 44% of the vote last night, leading attorney and Iraq war veteran Adam Cote, who charged ahead of several well-known politicians to score 29%. Two state senators finished with 11% each. Pingree will take on Allen's 2004 opponent, Charlie Summers, who won the Republican nomination by a 60%-40% margin, though in a district that gave John Kerry a twelve-point win in 2004 and that Allen never had trouble keeping, Pingree remains the prohibitive favorite.