Maloney handily defeated seven challengers in Saturday's special primary election, including the presumptive early favorite, former secretary of state Betty Ireland.

Maloney, who calls himself a true conservative, topped the primary field with 27,546 votes -- 45 percent -- to Ireland's 18,876.

The rest of the field finished far behind, led by Sen. Clark Barnes, R-Randolph, with 5,848 votes; Putnam County prosecutor Mark Sorsaia, at 2,956; former Berkeley County delegate Larry Faircloth, 2,376; Delegate Mitch Carmichael, R-Jackson, 2,061; West Virginia University professor Ralph Clark, 1,147; and former Westover mayor Cliff Ellis, 277.

On election night, Maloney said he was confident from the campaign's beginning on Feb. 12, when he was the last candidate to file for the special election.

"I felt very good about it the whole time. In the last couple of weeks, things really came together," Maloney said Saturday, prior to addressing his supporters at a victory party in Morgantown.

"This is kind of fun," he said of his first election victory. "My passion for West Virginia got me into this."

Maloney faces state Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin in an Oct. 4 special election to serve what will be the remaining 14 months in the unexpired term of ex-Gov. Joe Manchin, who stepped down Nov. 15 to serve in the U.S. Senate.

The state Supreme Court ordered the special election in January, ruling that Tomblin could not continue to act as governor for the duration of the unexpired term.

Maloney said he will use the same strategy in the fall race, pledging to run a "fully funded, aggressive campaign."

"We'll run the same kind of aggressive campaign we did this time," he said. "We'll win in October, and give state government back to the people."

 Despite an eight-candidate field, the election boiled down early to a race between Ireland, a former secretary of state and the first Republican woman to win a statewide election, and Maloney, a millionaire businessman making his first run for elected office.

With a campaign war chest in excess of $750,000 -- including $500,000 in loans to himself -- Maloney went from a virtual unknown to moving ahead of Ireland in the final days of the campaign, according to an independent Public Policy Polling poll released Thursday.

A drilling company owner and consultant, Maloney garnered worldwide attention as part of a team of volunteers who freed 33 trapped Chilean miners last fall. He made the rescue a focal point of an early commercial introducing himself to voters.

Maloney portrayed himself as a rock-ribbed conservative and a political outsider, in contrast to Ireland, whom he called a "career politician" and a "liberal Republican."

Maloney went negative late in the campaign, running ads contending that Ireland had misused state funds, leased a luxury SUV as her state vehicle, and was the subject of a federal audit during her term as secretary of state.

Ireland dismissed the attack, suggesting that Maloney lacked a "moral code." She did not, however, aggressively confront the negative ads.

Ireland emphasized her experience as a state official and as a business executive, describing herself as "tough, tested, conservative."

Their campaigns left the rest of the field overwhelmed and under-funded.

Barnes, who ran some TV and radio spots near the end of the campaign, emphasized his experience from serving six years in the state Senate.

Some political observers concluded that the campaigns of Carmichael, a six-term delegate, and Sorsaia were geared primarily to build contacts and name recognition for future political runs.

Faircloth, a former delegate who also made a longshot bid for governor in 2004, provoked controversy by making offensive comments about President Obama and U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi during a campaign appearance. He later apologized, saying it was a joke.

Clark took part in forums and other candidate events, while Ellis maintained a very limited campaign schedule.