Mr. Savage, a five-term Congressman 64 years old, won the primary with 51 percent of the vote.

Edolphus Towns is a popular five-term Congressman but without a legislative record to match.

Mr. Ford, a five-term congressman, was trying to become the first black senator from the South since Reconstruction.

Glenn Poshard, a former five-term congressman whom Mr. Ryan defeated in the 1998 race, said last week that he would not make a run.

Mr. Gibbons, a former legislator and largely invisible five-term congressman, gained stewardship of the state with less than 50 percent of the vote.

But the five-term Congressman, who passed up a House re-election campaign to run for the Senate, was clearly in the wrong place during the wrong political year.

Tom Carper, a 45-year-old Democrat and five-term Congressman, won in Delaware, taking back a state house that had been held by a Republican.

Mr. DeFazio, a 48-year-old, five-term Congressman from Springfield, has already said he will run.

Only hours later, at another meeting in the neighborhood, Stanley Barnes, a surgical technician, spoke in devoted tones about the five-term Congressman.

He was a five-term congressman from Idaho and later chaired the Securities and Exchange Commission.