Moderate Republicans scored big wins in Tuesday’s primary. Both Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson and former state Sen. Joe Schwarz, running for Congress, sailed to victory in their primary election contests against foes much farther to the right.

Their victories show that tolerant, “big tent” Republicanism — the sort that welcomes divergent views on abortion, homosexuality and other hot-button social issues — is still popular with some of the party’s most committed voters.

Patterson easily beat back challenges from Eileen Ambrose of West Bloomfield and Ed Hamilton of Troy. Ambrose had been backed by Tom McMillin, a county commissioner from Auburn Hills and a former councilman and mayor of that city. McMillin has actively campaigned on social issues and challenged Patterson’s leadership of the county party.

But primary voters appeared more interested in Patterson’s approach to governing, which has emphasized sound fiscal management, low taxes and economic development rather than social issues crusading. Patterson has concentrated on developing Automation Alley, a business-government consortium that has focused on using Oakland’s high-technology assets to lure more jobs to the county.

He has also worked to keep the county’s tax rate relatively low — nearly half that of neighboring Wayne County.

Drawing the appropriate lesson from his party’s failure to deliver the county for President George W. Bush in 2000 or GOP gubernatorial nominee Dick Posthumus in 2002 in their races against Democrats, Patterson has been fighting to make the county party more welcoming to moderates.

It seems to be what the voters want, especially since McMillin himself was repudiated in a bid to defeat incumbent Oakland Treasurer Pat Dohany.

There is a certain irony in Patterson’s situation. He gained political fame in the early 1970s as a hard-edged conservative lawyer for the National Action Group, an outfit that protested the busing of students for racial balance in Pontiac. As Oakland’s prosecuting attorney in the 1970s and 1980s, he campaigned as a tough, no-nonsense lawman.

But different times call for different governing styles, and Patterson, with no Democratic opposition this fall, will coast to another term as county executive.

In the race to succeed retiring U.S. Rep. Nick Smith in Michigan’s 7th Congressional District, which covers a number of counties that are near or border Ohio in south central Michigan, Battle Creek physician Joe Schwarz won a victory in the Republican primary in a field of six candidates that included Smith’s son

Schwarz had angered some in his party as a supporter of Arizona U.S. Sen. John McCain’s 2000 Michigan presidential primary bid against then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush. Schwarz, like Patterson, favors economic growth and efficient government, but he had a reputation in the state Legislature for independence.