The measure, which would increase the pensions for longtime legislators to $10,570 from $3,150 annually, still needs a full vote in the Senate and the Assembly before it can take effect.

Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto chose as Mr. Mitsuzuka's replacement a longtime legislator, Hikaru Matsunaga, who started his career as a public prosecutor.

He received approximately 47 percent of the vote against the district's longtime incumbent legislator, Bill DeWeese, winning in Greene County and losing by small margins in the other counties.

"The general belongs to all French people," said Patrick Devedjian, a longtime legislator, staring into the television cameras.

The plan did not work, at least not this year, because the longtime incumbent legislator, Audrey G. Hochberg, a Democrat, is unopposed.

Jay Hammond, a longtime legislator from the Bristol Bay region, was elected over incumbent governor Bill Egan by 287 votes, with Vogler trailing far behind.

His opponent, representing the rightist Likud Party, is Moshe Katzav, a former cabinet minister and a longtime legislator.

And they promise to set a new standard in close contests here: a candidate spending $2 million for a $49,000-a-year job that usually brings name recognition, even for longtime legislators, in the single digits.

She is reported to be interested in trying to become the first woman to be president of Israel, as is Colette Avital, a longtime legislator from the Labor Party.

Andrew J. Lanza, a Republican city councilman, easily won in a State Senate race to succeed the longtime legislator John J. Marchi.