DEMOCRAT WINS MASSACHUSETTS GOP STRONGHOLD

Democratic State Sen. John Olver was elected to the House of Representatives Tuesday in a special election to fill the First Congressional District seat left vacant by the death last February of Republican Silvio Conte. Mr. Olver defeated Republican Steven Pierce, the former state House minority leader who last year made an unsuccessful bid for the Republican gubernatorial nomination.

Olver's victory ends a 98-year Republican hold on the western Massachusetts seat, which Conte himself occupied for 32 years.

Olver's margin of victory was less than 2,000 votes of more than 130,000 cast in the election, which had a small turnout. Conte was the only Republican in the state's congressional delegation.