The long search for a new judge on the State Corporation Commission ended with the surprise election on Wednesday of a Republican former judge whose candidacy started a partisan battle over public transparency and gender in a critical election year.

Republican majorities in both chambers of the General Assembly elected former Judge Patricia West — a conservative Regent University official and former key aide to Gov. George Allen and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli — to fill the SCC post vacated by the retirement of Judge Jimmy Dimitri at the end of February.