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Patriot Ledger U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch easily cruised past his first Democratic challenger since 2002, winning 77 percent of the vote. “I’m very honored especially with numbers this big,” Lynch said as he monitored his election results at a campaign party at Heritage Hall in Milton. Lynch will now face Republican Jack E. Robinson, a past candidate for secretary of state and U.S. Senate, for the right to represent Massachusetts’ 9th Congressional District. Robinson was unopposed in the Republican primary. Phil Dunkelbarger, a Westwood businessman, tried to make the election a referendum on Lynch’s past support of the Iraq War. Lynch voted for the initial resolution allowing the Bush administration to use force in Iraq, and also voted against a Democratic-sponsored resolution that would have set a timetable for withdrawal. Lynch has said he thinks U.S. troops are at the end of their mission but does not support making public a formal schedule for troop withdrawal. He is the sole sponsor of a bill establishing a committee to develop an exit strategy. The results showed that voters either back Lynch’s war stances or felt he was providing good representation in other ways; he carried every town in the district by a healthy margin. Lynch said he was surprised by the margin of victory. “It’s beyond what anybody can reasonably expect,” he said. “When you represent 640,000 people, you’re never going to get unanimity on issues.” Lynch said that with Congress in recess, he expects to spend the next 48 days in the district, knocking on doors. “I think most people want the country to go in a new direction,” he said. “Even the people who were the most ardent of Bush supporters who gave him the benefit of the doubt are conceding we need to strike a new direction in this country.” |