Beaver County Democrat Stevan Drobac Jr. notched a 10-percentage-point win in a primary battle of congressional challengers Tuesday, carrying four of the six counties that make up the 4th District.

Drobac, 50, defeated Mark Purcell of Allegheny County by nearly 6,000 votes to earn the Democratic nomination to take on freshman Republican U.S. Rep. Melissa Hart in the fall.

State lawmakers passed redistricting legislation this year that placed the southwest corner of Mercer County in the 4th District, which stretches south into Allegheny County.

Local communities include Farrell, West Middlesex, Wheatland, Shenango Township and part of Hermitage -- a block of about 13,000 people and 9,000 registered voters, three-quarters of them Democrats.

Mercer County was one of the counties Drobac carried. He unofficially won by 18 percentage points, collecting 489 votes to Purcell's 341.

While Drobac thanked voters for their support in the primary, his sights were already set on the fall election. "There are some people who have said winning this election will be impossible -- just like they told Joe Willie Namath (a Beaver Falls native) that his New York Jets would not win Super Bowl III," Drobac said.

Namath, the legendary quarterback and eccentric, guaranteed a Jets victory over the favored Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III and the Jets won, 16-7.

"I am publicly announcing tonight that I will defeat her (Ms. Hart) in the general election," Drobac said. "I am going to start campaigning tomorrow morning, and I will campaign until my legs fall off."