LANCASTER -- Democratic officials, many of whom had worked for decades to defeat Sen. Arlen Specter, welcomed him to his new party Saturday with an overwhelming endorsement for their primary.

Mr. Specter listened to the roll call of the Democratic State Committee in the first row of the Philadelphia delegation.

"I have been involved in many elections, but none quite so thrilling as this one," Mr. Specter said after the results were announced.

His challenger, Rep. Joe Sestak, downplayed the significance of his rebuff.

"The Washington establishment made a deal and the insiders have endorsed that," he said.

While Mr. Sestak was speaking in the lobby of a snowbound Lancaster hotel, the state committee members were beginning the first of two rounds of balloting that would produce a majority for state Auditor General Jack Wagner in the race for the nomination for governor.

His total, however, fell short of the two-thirds super-majority needed for an official endorsement. That means that the party apparatus will have no official candidate in the May 18 primary for governor.

Two candidates competed in portraying the result as a victory for them.

"The way I look at it, I won the endorsement vote," said Mr. Wagner, who pointed out that before a 2004 change in party rules, his total would have been sufficient to win the endorsement.

But Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato, who finished a distant second, said the numeric defeat was a tactical victory.

"This is a big win for me," he said. "We think this is the best result that could have come out of this."

Mr. Specter, who turned 80 this week, was a Democrat decades ago before the Philadelphia Republican Party recruited him to run for district attorney. He said he was proud to return to "the party of my roots."

He praised his challenger, Mr. Sestak, the day after they had exchanged attacks in a highly charged debate.

Mr. Specter left the Republican Party less than a year ago, acknowledging the long odds he would face in the GOP primary. His party switch has been embraced by senior Democrats but Saturday's vote was the first time he had faced the test of an actual election among Democrats.

Mr. Specter told the crowd that his record belied his former party label, noting his support for liberal positions on issues ranging from abortion to the nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court.

He predicted a tough fall campaign, but he was not taking Mr. Sestak's challenge for granted.

"There's only two ways to run," Mr. Specter said, "scared and unopposed."

Mr. Sestak, a Navy veteran, said the result underscored his status as an outsider, and he argued that was a quality that would be an asset in a year characterized by an angry electorate.

"They're leading us off a cliff," he said of the state committee vote.

Though he fell short of his goal, Mr. Wagner's showing demonstrated significant support from the party's rank-and-file. Coupled with his 2008 landslide for re-election of auditor general, he contended that it demonstrated that he had the broadest support in the Democratic field.

What he doesn't have is money. In that category, Mr. Onorato is far ahead of everyone else in the Democratic field.

Given that advantage, Mr. Onorato's partisans argued that he left the meeting in a stronger position than Mr. Wagner -- with a modest lead in the polls and a major lead in campaign cash.

Had Mr. Wagner captured the official endorsement, it would have made it awkward for Mr. Onorato's allies among the party officials to actively campaign for him.

Overall, the committee voted 152 to 76.

Allegheny County Democrats were divided by 25 votes for Mr. Onorato and 16 for Mr. Wagner.

Elsewhere in southwestern Pennsylvania, Mr. Wagner ran consistently ahead of Mr. Onorato.

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