In a highly competitive 10-person Congressional race, it is only inevitable that certain visions will not be followed.

Although the 1998 Eighth Congressional District race will be remembered for putting the new face of Mike Capuano into the Eighth's vaunted history, voters will be hard pressed to forget his two closest competitors--Ray Flynn, former mayor of Boston, and George Bachrach, a former state senator. Both campaigns had high hopes coming into Tuesday night's Democratic primary.

Even with Flynn's loss, the connections he created with local communities during his three terms as Boston mayor will not be erased by Tuesday's defeat, his supporters said.

Jack Donahue, a campaign sound engineer who also worked with Flynn when he was mayor, recalled fondly a moment he said defined Flynn's character.

During his tenure as mayor, Flynn was supposed to attend a tree-lighting ceremony in downtown Boston that would be witnessed by thousands of people.

However, on his way to the occasion, he was alerted of a fire in Hyde Park that ultimately took one person's life. He immediately went to the scene of the fire and, ultimately, arrived at the ceremony three hours late.

"He was more concerned about saving people in the fire, than going to the ceremony," Donahue said.

Testimonials such as these reflect the quality of the candidates in the Eighth District. As Capuano himself admitted Tuesday night, "any one of the 10 candidates" could have represented the district well.

The final vote tallies had Capuano winning with 23 percent of the vote with Flynn following with 18 percent, and Bachrach a close third with 14 percent.

While most politicians tout themselves as having strong values, it appears Flynn was hurt at the polls by his pro-life abortion stand in the highly liberal Eighth District.

"Ray is the kind of guy who'd rather lose the election than win [by compromising his values]," Donahue said. "He's not like a lot of these other guys whose opinion changes because of public opinion polls."

Donahue's sentiment was supported by other campaign workers who respected his ability to stay firm in his beliefs.

"You have seen other politicians sway in the wind and it's a personal belief that he holds. Although people may not agree in that, they respect it," said Greg J. Kelley, a campaign volunteer.

While Flynn may have sacrificed political gain by standing by his strong pro-life abortion stand, voters focused on his populist appeal along with his previous political roots.

"It's a grass roots campaign. He's looking for working families. People in the working class feel a connection with him from his days as Mayor," Kelley said.