RICHMOND, Va., Dec. 11 (UPI) -- A Republican state representative won a special election Tuesday for the Virginia congressional seat left vacant by the death of Jo Ann Davis.
Robb Wittman, now a member of the House of Delegates, won 63 percent of the vote in the First District, defeating Philip Forgit, a Democrat who served in Iraq, Congressional Quarterly reported.
Wittmann will serve Davis' unexpired term with another election in November 2008.
The district, which extends from the Tidewater area to the Washington suburbs, has tended to be safely Republican in recent years. The Democratic Party invested little in the race, although Gov. Tim Kaine and former Gov. Mark Warner campaigned for Forgit.
Both candidates were selected at nominating conventions only a month ago, giving them little time to campaign.
Wittmann, elected to the House of Delegates in 2005, is a veteran of town and county offices.
Davis, the first Republican woman to represent Virginia in Congress, served from 2001 until her death in October of breast cancer.
