Culbreth and the rest of his crew Brian O'Nora, Bill Welke and Adrian Johnson were also fined an undisclosed amount after MLB admitted its umps goofed for the second straight day.

"The rule covering pitching changes was not applied correctly by the umpiring crew," MLB said in a statement.

Culbreth and his crew worked the Padres-Rays game in Tampa, Fla., on Friday night.

He told a pool reporter after the game that he takes "all the responsibility" for what happened.

As for the discipline?

"I look at it that baseball has high standards for their umpires and I have high standards for myself and I didn't meet those standards last night, so I am absolutely OK with everything," he said.

The problem in Houston came a day after Angel Hernandez and his crew in Cleveland failed to reverse a clear-cut home run after looking at a video review. MLB executive vice president Joe Torre said the umpires made an "improper call."

Hernandez was booed when the umpires were introduced Friday night before the Washington Nationals hosted the Chicago Cubs.

It's recently been a rough run for umps. Crew chief Tom Hallion was fined earlier this month after getting into a verbal spat with Tampa Bay pitcher David Price.

The latest trouble occurred in the seventh inning at Minute Maid Park. And while baseball does have video replay for some hard-to-tell calls and has talked for a couple of years about expanding its scope there was no mistaking what umpires saw.

With two outs and the Astros ahead 5-3, Houston reliever Wesley Wright came in from the bullpen and threw several warmup pitches from the mound. Porter, a first-year manager, then ran onto the field to stop him and brought in another reliever, Hector Ambriz.

Angels manager Mike Scioscia argued, correctly contending Wright was required to pitch to at least one batter. But the umpires permitted Ambriz to stay in and Scioscia put the game under protest it became moot when the Angels rallied to win 6-5.

Scioscia wasn't surprised by MLB's stern ruling.

"One thing I have found is that in the course of, especially with Joe Torre and Major League Baseball, that I think there is accountability," he said Friday in Chicago. "That might not always show its face but I know behind the scenes it's there and this is one example."

Pinch-hitter Luis Jimenez was on deck when Wright entered. Once Ambriz took over, Scott Cousins came up as a pinch-hitter.

On Friday, Porter was upset that he caused the problem.

"Personally, I want to apologize to their whole crew for putting them in that position," he said. "It's unfortunate for the game of baseball."

A day later, Culbreth tried to explain what happened.

"We just got to cross-sectioning different rules within the changing of a pitcher, and just had a hard time getting back on track from that," he said. "We got confused."

Porter said he spoke with Culbreth after the game and apologized to him when he realized he was wrong. But he still wanted to make a public apology.

"There are some repercussions, and again as I sit here today, it's more that I feel sorry for the crew chief and the crew for having to wear what it is that happened last night," Porter said.

Culbreth said Porter's mistake was not the problem.

"I look at it that the players and the managers, they go out and play the game and it is our job, whether they are knowingly or unknowingly getting outside the boundaries to get them back in, and I fell short of keeping them inside those lines," Culbreth said. "And that falls on me."

Wright, one of the pitchers involved in the fiasco, thinks it's unfortunate that Culbreth was suspended. He said when it happened; he figured he was going to have to stay in to face a batter.

"When they told me I was out of the game I was just kind of like: 'Maybe I don't understand the rule,'" he said. "It was just one of those weird situations."

A day earlier, a mistake in Cleveland caused a lot of commotion.

Adam Rosales and the Athletics were certain he'd hit a game-tying home run in the ninth inning against the Indians. Three umpires went to a video review and instead upheld the original call on the field that the ball didn't clear the left-field wall.

Oakland manager Bob Melvin was ejected and was later contacted by MLB officials.

The mistake drew attention all over the majors. Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle said he'd never before seen an obvious miss despite replay.

"This is the first one where there definitely is a line drawn where you go, 'Wow,'" he said.

_____

AP Sports Writers Kristie Rieken in Houston and Fred Goodall in Tampa, Fla., contributed to this story.

A person familiar with the decision tells The Associated Press the new four-team playoff starting after the 2014 regular season will be called the College Football Playoff, and the conference commissioners will make it official with an announcement later Tuesday.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the name was not to be released before then.

The major college football conference commissioners are holding three days of meetings in the Rose Bowl's backyard. They also will choose the remaining three sites for the six-bowl semifinal rotation in the new system, along with the site of the first championship game to be held Jan. 12, 2015.

ESPN.com first reported the new name.

BCS executive director Bill Hancock, who will hold the same position in the playoff system, had said the goal was to have a simple and descriptive name.

Premiere Sports Management in Overland Park, Kan., was hired to help come up with a name and brand the new system.

Before the news was reported, Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany said he'd be happy with whatever was selected.

"I'm am not good with names obviously," Delany said during a break in the meetings, referring to the Big Ten's division names, Legends and Leaders, that produced so much negative feedback the conference has already decided to change them.

The new postseason format will create two national semifinals to be played New Year's Eve or New Year's Day, with the winners advancing. The six bowls in the playoff rotation will host marquee, BCS-type games on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day during the seasons they do not host a semifinal.

Three semifinal spots have already been decided: the Rose, Orange and Sugar bowls.

Four other bowls have bid for the final three spots. The clear front-runners are the Cotton, Chick-fil-A and Fiesta. The Holiday Bowl in San Diego also put in a bid, but even its organizers have acknowledged they are a long shot at best to land the game.

Those decisions will be announced Wednesday.

The coaches on the Big 12's spring teleconference were already talking about the Cotton Bowl having a spot in the rotation as if it was a done deal.

"I think it's really exciting for this region, for everybody, and I think all of the schools in this region, to have Dallas as one of those sites is great for everybody in this region, and exciting for everybody," Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said. "Obviously everybody knows what a great and quality, what an awesome stadium it is, then the location for us is an advantage, or should be."

The first semifinals will be played at the Rose and Sugar bowls.

The site of the first national championship game in the new system will also be determined at these meetings and the finalists are Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, the billion dollar home of the NFL team and the Cotton Bowl, and Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla., home of the Buccaneers.

Arlington is the favorite to land that first championship game, but the competition from Tampa has been serious.

"I'm glad it has," Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said on Tuesday. "I think it will give us a better outcome."

Also on the agenda this week for the commissioners will be the composition of the selection committee that will set the field for the playoff. They have said they would like the committee to be similar to the one that picks the teams for the NCAA basketball tournament, made up of conference commissioners and athletic directors.

Bowlsby said he expected both current and former administrators to have a spot on the committee.

"The hardest thing is making sure we're arming whoever is on the committee with the tools that it takes to differentiate among closely proximal teams," Bowlsby said. "You have to have some metrics available to differentiate between three, four, five, six and seven."

"You can't just say we like blue uniforms and not gold uniforms. You've got to arm the committee with the tools that it takes to do their job."

The company expects operating profit to rise to 250 billion yen ($2.52 billion) in the current business year from last year's 160.9 billion yen. That compares with an average 241 billion yen forecast from 18 analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S before the company released its latest earnings figures on Friday.

Panasonic's CEO, Kazuhiko Tsuga has promised to weed out within two years any loss-making or low-profitability units that fall short of a 5 percent annual operating margin threshold. Further restructuring, however, could add to costs and squeeze its bottom line.

Panasonic's strategy to pull away from consumer electronics contrasts with domestic rival Sony Corp, which is doubling down on mobile phones, cameras and game consoles in a bid to revive the fortunes of its core consumer electronics business, which still accounts for more than half of revenue.

At Tsuga's company, TVs, DVD players and other home entertainment gadgets represent less than one-fifth of sales, leaving it more options to pursue profits elsewhere. Panasonic's biggest earning segments are appliances, such as washing machines and refrigerators, and the division it dubs "eco solutions", which makes light fixtures, toilets, ceiling fans and other household fittings that hark back to the company's beginnings in 1908 making electrical extension sockets.

In October, Tsuga bit the bullet on non-performing businesses by writing down billions of yen in tax-deferred assets and goodwill related to its businesses making mobile phones, solar panels and small lithium batteries. The result was a net loss of 754.25 billion yen last business year, nearly matching the prior year's record 772.17 billion yen loss.

Like Sony, however, the company is relying on asset sales to underpin its finances as it tries to revive profit growth, pledging to keep annual free cashflow above 200 billion yen. Its disposals have included a Tokyo office building and $1 billion worth of stocks in companies such as Toyota Motor Corp.

The value of the company's assets fell to 5.4 trillion yen at the end of the latest business year from 6.6 trillion a year earlier, as a result of asset disposals and writeoffs.

Over the next two years, Panasonic, which has seen its sales shrink by one-fifth from a peak of $92 billion six years ago, plans to spend $2.5 billion to revamp its businesses.

It has yet to announce additional staff cuts, after shedding 40,000 jobs over the past two years. With 300,000 workers it remains one of Japan's biggest employers.

Since the start of the year, the company's shares have gained 43 percent, keeping pace with a 40 percent rally in the benchmark Nikkei average as weakness in the yen boosted the outlook for exporters. Panasonic's shares rose 3.7 percent on Friday to close at 749 yen before it released its latest earnings figures.

($1 = 99.3050 Japanese yen)

(Reporting by Tim Kelly; Editing by Edmund Klamann)

President Barack Obama underlined Tuesday that investigators do not know if the twin bombing the day before that killed three people and wounded more than 170 was carried out by an international organization, a domestic group or a "malevolent individual." There has been no claim of responsibility.

A person briefed on the investigation told The Associated Press that the explosives were fashioned out of pressure cookers and packed with shards of metal, nails and ball bearings to inflict maximum carnage.

The relative ease of constructing such bombs and the powerful punch they deliver has made them attractive to insurgents and Islamic extremists, particularly in South Asia. They have turned up in past bombing plots by Islamic extremists in the West, including a plan by a U.S. soldier to blow up a restaurant frequented by fellow soldiers outside Fort Hood, in Texas. One of the three devices used in the May 2010 Times Square attempted bombing was a pressure cooker, according to a joint FBI and Homeland Security intelligence report issued in July 2010.

Al-Qaida's branch in Yemen gave a detailed description on how to make a pressure cooker bomb in the 2010 first issue of "Inspire," its magazine that only appears online, in a chapter titled "Make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom."

"The pressurized cooker is the most effective method" for making a simple bomb, the article said, describing how to fill the cooker with shrapnel and gunpowder and to create a detonator using the filament of a light bulb and a clock timer.

"Inspire" magazine has a running series of such training articles called "Open Source Jihad," which the group calls a resource manual for individual extremists to carry out attacks against the enemies of jihad, including the U.S. and its allies.The magazine is targeted heavily at encouraging "lone wolf" jihadis.

An issue last year reprinted an older article by a veteran Syrian jihadi Abu Musab al-Souri addressing would-be jihadis proposing a long list of possible targets for attacks, among them "crowded sports arenas" and "annual social events."

Notably, Army Pfc. Naser Jason Abdo, who was convicted and sentenced to life in prison last year for the Fort Hood restaurant bombing plot, was discovered to have a copy of the "How to build a bomb in the kitchen of your mom" article, according to the FBI. Investigators found bombmaking materials in his hotel that included a pressure cooker and gunpowder, according to testimony at his trial.

The SITE Monitoring Service, a U.S. independent group tracking militant messaging online, noted that Islamic extremists are not the only ones paying attention to the al-Qaida magazine: White supremacists have also circulated copies on their web forums. They found "Inspire" and "other al-Qaida manuals beneficial for their strategies," it said.

Over the course of 10 issues the past three years, "Inspire" has given detailed instructions with diagrams and photos on how to use automatic weapons, produce remote control detonators, set fire to a building or create forest fires. In the most recent issue, put out in March, it described how to set fire to a parked vehicle and how to cause road accidents with oil slicks on a road or tire-bursting spikes.

The chapters, including the one on pressure cooker bombs, were compiled into a booklet titled "The Lone Mujahed Pocketbook," released on Islamic militant web sites in March, according to SITE.

Al-Qaida's Yemeni branch, known as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, has repeatedly tried to carry out direct attacks on U.S. soil, once by dispatching the would-be 2009 Christmas bomber of a U.S. jet whose attack failed when the explosives hidden in his underwear failed to go off and then the following year by trying to mail explosives to the U.S. in packages that were intercepted.

The pressure cooker bomb's most frequent use seems to be in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal and India in attacks against police or the public. This year, local press reports in Pakistan have reported several such bombs found planted on streets, including in the city of Karachi, where multiple militant groups operate.

In 2010, suspected militants attacked the U.S.-based Christian aid group World Vision in northwestern Pakistan, killing six Pakistani employees with a remotely detonated pressure cooker bomb.

That same year, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security put out a warning about such explosives, noting their frequent use in South Asia.

"The presence of a pressure cooker in an unusual location such as a building lobby or busy street corner should be treated as suspicious," it said.

__

AP correspondents Cassandra Vinograd and Paisley Dodds in London and Eileen Sullivan in Washington contributed to this report.

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia announced a significant boost to its military air power on Friday, committing to buy up to new 100 Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, as it shifts its focus back to the Indo-Pacific as China and India beef up forces.

After more than a decade of having forces first in Iraq, and then Afghanistan, Australia wants to focus on the military challenges closer to home, in line with U.S. President Barack Obama's 2011 "pivot" towards the Asia-Pacific.

In a new defense strategy, Australia reinforces that the United States remains its closest ally, but also struck a conciliatory tone towards top trading partner China, noting its rising defense capabilities are a natural outcome from its growing economy.

"The government does not approach China as an adversary. Rather, its policy is aimed at encouraging China's peaceful rise and ensuring that strategic competition in the region does not lead to conflict," the defense strategy said.

In Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying noted Australia's assessment of China in the document "as a partner and not an opponent" and its view that the country's development was "beneficial to the region and world".

"We believe this embodies Australia's emphasis on developing China-Australia relations," she told a news briefing.

As part of Australia's military buildup, Defense Minister Stephen Smith said Canberra was committed to purchasing several squadrons of F-35s and would also buy 12 Boeing Co EA-18G electronic attack planes, modified versions of the 24 Super Hornets already equipping Australia's air force.

"This important decision will assure a first-class air combat capability for Australia through the transition period to the Joint Strike Fighter, which will proceed on its current schedule," Defense Minister Stephen Smith said.

Canberra's decision reinforces positive steps for the F-35, coming on the heels of a decision by Norway to buy six F-35s a year earlier than planned, and the Dutch parliament's decision not to reassess F-35 rivals to replace aging F-16s, despite cost overruns and development delays.

Australia's first two F-35s are due to be delivered in the United States in 2014-15. Australia will initially buy 14 F-35s, building up to three operational squadrons, of around 75 planes. The first squadron is due in service from around 2020.

The decision to stick with the F-35 will give Australia a mixed fleet of Super Hornets, Growlers and the new stealth fighters, matching the U.S. navy capability until at least 2030, Smith said.

The government also holds the option of buying a further 25 F-35s after 2030, to replace the Super Hornets when they are withdrawn from service, bringing the total of F-35s to 100.

STRATEGIC OUTLOOK

The new defense strategy is the first reassessment of Australia's military priorities since 2009, and comes after the 2011 U.S. pivot to the Asia-Pacific. Part of that pivot included U.S. marine rotations through a de-facto U.S. base in northern Australia.

The U.S. troop deployments and Australia's 2009 military strategy both upset China, particularly when Australia bluntly told China it needed to do more to explain its military plans which it said had the potential to concern its neighbors.

China has sharply increased military spending over the past three decades and its navy is now second in size only to the U.S. fleet in terms of numbers, increasing concerns from neighbors, like Japan and South Korea, involved in a series of long-running territorial disputes.

Australia's new strategy stresses the need for both China and the U.S. to build their strategic relationship, and says Australia does not believe it will have to choose between its alliance with the U.S. and its strengthening ties with China.

"Certainly there has been a lot of diplomatic varnish put on the text of this white paper, and there is nothing in there that should offend China outright," said Rory Medcalf, an analyst from the strategic policy think tank the Lowy Institute. "This white paper will certainly be one of the last steps in rebuilding Australia-China relations."

The document also stresses the growing importance of the Indian Ocean region, with India's military growth and with two thirds of global oil shipments passing through the Indian Ocean.

The strategy said the United States was likely to remain the strongest maritime power in the Indian Ocean, although China was likely to increase its presence there in the coming decades, as 80 percent of China's oil imports go through the region.

With Prime Minister Julia Gillard's minority Labor government under pressure to find budget savings to respond to collapsing revenues, Australia's net defense budget has contracted to around 1.56 percent of GDP, or A$24.2 billion. As a percentage, spending is at the lowest level since 1938.

The new white paper makes no commitments on defense spending, but says the government remains committed to a target to increase defense funding to 2.0 percent of GDP when the economic circumstances allow.

(Additional reporting by Rob Taylor and Michael Martina in BEIJING; Editing by Paul Tait, Michael Perry and Ron Popeski)

The UCI president has been under pressure since details emerged of systematic doping by Lance Armstrong to win seven Tour de France titles. But McQuaid received the nomination after pledging to overhaul the UCI.

However, Cycling Ireland says its board would hold an emergency general meeting at a date to be determined ''to consider matters which have arisen following the decision taken at its board meeting on April 12th to nominate Mr. Pat McQuaid.''

Cycling Ireland chief executive Geoff Liffey says details of the meeting will be circulated to member clubs next week.

At least they started the playoffs on a winning note.

Bryan Bickell scored in overtime on a two-on-one rush, and theBlackhawks escaped with a victory after dominating the regular season, beating the Minnesota Wild 2-1 Tuesday night.

Corey Crawford settled down after allowing a weak goal in the opening minutes. Marian Hossa also scored, and the Blackhawks took the early lead in this first-round series.

Game 2 is Friday at the United Center.

"We just needed to stay patient," Bickell said. "We were getting our opportunities. Not odd-man rushes like they were, but we got the one, and to capitalize on it is huge. With our speed, through the whole season a lot of teams were trying to shut us down and let us get frustrated."

The Blackhawks finally put this one away when Johnny Oduya chipped the puck off the boards up to Viktor Stalberg on the right side. Stalberg then dished it on the two-on-one rush to Bickell, who was all alone for the winning backhander at 16:35.

Big things are expected in Chicago after a spectacular regular season that included a record start and the team's first Presidents' Trophy since 1991.

The Blackhawks are eyeing a run to the Stanley Cup for the second time in four years. They have been eliminated in the first round the past two seasons after beating Philadelphia for the championship in 2010, and they realize that for all they accomplished thus far in 2013, they'll ultimately be judged by what happens in the playoffs.

"Everybody's patting ourselves on the back and we've got to prove it," coach Joel Quenneville said. "That's where we're at. I think that (being) satisfied with what we achieved doesn't do anything. I think we want to make sure that we're looking for bigger goals and that's playing better each and every game here and pick up the level of intensity for the playoff."

They seemingly caught a break before the game when Minnesota goalie Niklas Backstrom was scratched because of a leg injury suffered while reaching for a puck in the pregame warm-ups.

Josh Harding replaced him and more than held his own after being limited to just five games following a multiple sclerosis diagnosis last summer. Harding made 35 saves.

"Phenomenal," coach Mike Yeo said. "It's hard to sit here and try to paint an accurate picture of what he's gone through, because I have no idea, we have no idea.He's a guy that, certainly, for many reasons you're rooting for."

Harding didn't want to talk about his medical condition. But he did shrug off the late change, saying he was ready to play.

"After warm-up I was preparing just like I was going to play until somebody came and told me no, and no one came and told me, so I just went on with my business," he said.

As for Backstrom, Yeo didn't have much of an update, although he did say, "It was a bit of a curveball to say the least."

The Wild, trying to match what the Los Angeles Kings did a year ago and win the Stanley Cup as an eight seed, took the lead just under five minutes into the game when Cal Clutterbuck fooled Crawford with a soft shot from the left circle.

The goal on Minnesota's first shot brought back some bad memories for Blackhawks fans who remember him allowing several soft goals in the playoffs against Phoenix a year ago.

Hossa tied it just over two minutes into the second period, streaking down the left side, getting behind Minnesota's Jonas Brodin and firing the puck between Harding's pads after taking a feed from Patrick Kane.

Harding made a big save with his right pad from point-blank range on Kane after he beat Marco Scandella in the opening minutes of the third period to preserve the 1-1 tie.

Chicago appeared to take the lead midway through the third. Minnesota's Jared Spurgeon fell on a loose puck just outside the crease, and the Blackhawks kept swatting at it. Jonathan Toews knocked it into the net, but the whistle had already blown.

Blackhawks fans responded with some nasty chants, but they were letting out big sighs of relief two minutes later when a wraparound shot by Minnesota's Jason Zucker slid across the crease.

After five of their six playoff games against Phoenix last year went to overtime, the Blackhawks found themselves in a familiar spot.

They almost won it in OT when Hossa skated toward the net and drew Harding to the ice, but the goalie barely deflected his backhanded shot. Crawford then had a big blocker save on Zach Parise.

"We were able to battle through a lot today," Crawford said. "We battled through that first goal, had a couple of PKs (penalty kills) in overtime, one in the third there. Our guys did a solid job. It was definitely a good test for us."

Notes: Wild RW Jason Pominville sat out this game, after missing the final two of the regular season following an elbow to the chin by Dustin Brown of the Los Angeles Kings. ... Kane is sporting a playoff mullet again. "I think it's fun," he said. "It's good for a good laugh or two. It's something that's been a little bit of a tradition."The youthful looking Kane gained national attention when he grew the mullet for the championship run in 2010 and he went with it again the following year. He went with a beard, instead, last year. But on Tuesday, he was all business up front and party in the back. ... The Blackhawks were without G Ray Emery and Dave Bolland because of lower body injuries.

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For his first tweet, Brooks included a link to the live stream of a festival kick-off conversation between him and his good friend and comedy partner Carl Reiner (already a ), moderated by Judd Apatow: 

This is my 1st tweet - watch me with @ & @ live at 5E/2P forP.S. Carl made me do it.

So what does being on Twitter mean to Mel Brooks? "It is very close to thrilling," he told Apatow. But when Apatow asked him again about tweeting, Brooks said: "Explain what a tweet is." Then, after he was told about the 140 character limit, Brooks tried to tell a joke, which he estimated would amount to multiple tweets: "Tweeting is hard. You've got to squeeze the joke." 

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Of course, that goes against the whole idea of the #ComedyFest, which seeks to capitalize on the success that comedians have had on the medium. But Brooks's style of joke telling, which often comes not in just one-liners but full stories, doesn't really work. And therein lies the problem of Twitter's comedic embrace: The week ahead will mostly feature live tweeting from comedians who are either shilling something, are good at Twitter already, or both — participants include Amy Schumer, who is promoting her new Comedy Central show; Comedy Central's Key and Peele; and the folks of Reno 911! 

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So nobody's really sure how everything else will turn out. And, naturally, Reiner and Brooks also did have something to promote too. Everyone at the panel got a copy of Reiner's book, and Brooks has an . (Brooks also put on a baseball cap to promote the movie of hisbook, World War Z.) But Reiner and Brooks are legends and were charming. They told stories like how the first met on Your Show of Shows, how they started the 2000 Year Old Man, how Reiner found Mary Tyler Moore for The Dick Van Dyke Show, and how Brooks consulted with Richard Pryor about the controversial aspects for Blazing Saddles. After the audience applauded at mention of Pryor's name, Reiner said when he dies he'll be able to tell Pryor: "They're still applauding you." 

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After all the reminiscing, they were also prepared to go home and watch Breaking Bad, which they do every night. We're not expecting Brooks to live tweet it. 

Tuesday's primary elections set up an eight-week sprint to the June 25 election.

In Markey, the race pits a longtime liberal politician known for environmental advocacy against Gomez, a fresh-faced social moderate with a distinguished biography and untested political skills. On paper, it looks like a competitive contest, but Republicans quietly concede that Markey is the strong favorite in a state where only around 11 percent of voters are registered Republicans.

"As we've shown before in the state, anything can happen in a special election," said Republican strategist Ron Kaufman, Massachusetts' national committeeman.

Indeed, little-known Republican state Sen. Scott Brown stunned Democrats in his 2010 special election U.S. Senate victory in a contest that became a referendum on Obama's healthcare overhaul. So far, at least, this race has drawn little national interest, even before being overshadowed by the Boston Marathon bombings.

And unlike the last special election, this one will have little bearing on the immediate balance of power in the U.S. Senate, where Democrats have an effective 55-45 majority.

But Massachusetts Democratic party leaders promised they would not repeat the mistakes of the last special contest, when they largely took success for granted.

"We have absolutely learned a lesson. As long as I'm around, we will never leave primary day thinking we're all set," Massachusetts Democratic Party chairman John Walsh said Tuesday, vowing an aggressive grassroots strategy to rally Democrats across the state behind Markey.

Gomez, 47, won a three-way primary against former U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan and state Rep. Daniel Winslow. Markey, 66, a member of Congress for the last 36 years, defeated fellow U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch on the Democratic side.

"This election, ladies and gentleman, will not be easy," Markey said in his primary victory speech, suggesting that national Republicans were prepared to "move mountains of money to buy this election."

Gomez, meanwhile, painted Markey as a longtime Washington insider in a speech that included moments of Spanish. He said he was playing Little League Baseball when Markey was first elected to Congress.

In many ways, Gomez fits the profile of a new brand of politician that Republican leaders are looking for. The Republican National Committee released a report in March calling for better minority outreach and more inclusive tones on immigration and social issues.

Gomez is the son of Columbian immigrants and speaks fluent Spanish. He supports gay marriage, but says it should be decided state by state. He personally opposes abortion, citing his Catholic faith, but hasn't advocated overturning Roe v. Wade.

Over more than three decades in Congress, Markey quietly built a legislative portfolio that included work on energy, telecommunication, national security and the environment. When oil began spilling into the Gulf of Mexico following an offshore explosion, Markey pushed to make live video footage of the spill available.

The Democrat begins the race with a significant financial advantage. He led all other candidates in fundraising and had won the backing early on of Kerry and a large segment of the Democratic establishment.

Gomez, who launched a career in private equity after leaving the military, has already loaned his campaign at least $600,000.

He has the backing of a so-called super PAC that can raise and spend unlimited sums of money. Eric Fehrnstrom, previously a top aide to former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, advises the outside group, known as the Committee for a Better Massachusetts.

A handful of Romney's team is playing key roles on Gomez' campaign.

Still, some Republicans in Washington are quietly pessimistic about the race because of the political realities of Massachusetts, where Democrats enjoy a 1-million-voter registration advantage. Unaffiliated voters make up almost 53 percent of the electorate.

Republicans also concede that Gomez isn't always comfortable in the spotlight. Save for an unsuccessful bid for town selectman, he has never run for political office.

"If you're looking for an experienced, slick talking politician, I'm definitely not your guy," Gomez told supporters Tuesday night. "If you are looking for an independent voice, a new kind of Republican, take a look at our campaign and I'd welcome your support."

Markey suggested the race could have national implications. "This campaign is about standing up to the special interests and the extreme tea party Republicans who want to stop progress and send our country in the wrong direction," he said. "I am ready for that fight."

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Associated Press writers Steve LeBlanc and Bob Salsberg contributed to this report.