PORTLAND, Ore. -- Democrat Kurt Schrader claimed the open congressional seat in Oregon's 5th District on Tuesday.

Schrader, a state senator from Canby, led Mike Erickson 58 percent to 35 percent with 33 percent of the vote counted.

Republicans earlier thought they would have a shot at taking the seat after incumbent Democrat Darlene Hooley announced in February she wouldn't run again.

The GOP's hopes of retaking the 5th District seat were dimmed by this year's voter registration surge by Democrats. Registered Democrats now are ahead of Republicans by 5 percentage points.

But it was the personal character issues surrounding Erickson that most damaged the GOP's prospects in the district, which extends from the mid-Willamette Valley to the Portland suburbs and the central Oregon coast.

Erickson, a Lake Oswego businessman who devoted more than $2 million of his own money to this year's race, repeatedly denied his former girlfriend's allegation that he paid for her abortion in 2001. More recently Erickson was accused of disguising a pleasure trip to Cuba as a relief mission, which Erickson says is false.

Despite Erickson's repeated denials of those allegations, prominent Republicans such as Sen. Gordon Smith and Walden had refused to endorse him.