AUGUSTA – Democrat Chellie Pingree has won a hard-fought, six-way race to win her party’s nomination in southern Maine’s 1st Congressional District.

Pingree, a former Senate majority leader who later served as national chair of Common Cause, raised the most money and maintained a comfortable lead.

With 57 percent of precincts voting, Pingree, of North Haven, had 44 percent of the vote while while Adam Cote, a Portland lawyer and Iraq war veteran, had 26 percent.

On the Republican side, Charlie Summers of Scarborough, who recently returned from duty in Iraq, turned back a challenge by Dean Scontras of Eliot for the party’s 1st District nomination.

In the Senate race, Maine Democrats chose Rep. Tom Allen over political newcomer Tom Ledue in Tuesday’s U.S. Senate primary while both parties settled hard-fought races to set the stage for November’s 1st congressional district election.

Allen, a six-term congressman from Portland, was well ahead of Ledue, a high school administrator from Springvale, in early unofficial tallies. Allen will face two-term Sen. Susan Collins, who was unopposed in the Republican primary, in November.

There were no contests in the primaries in Maine’s 2nd congressional district, where Democratic Rep. Michael Michaud is seeking his fourth House term. His challenger is Republican John Frary, a retired history professor from Farmington.