Republican Marna McLendon's 20-year career in Howard County's legal community crested with a narrow victory for state's attorney last night over a self-described political outsider.
In the race for two county school board seats, Karen Campbell will return to office after a two-year absence, along with newcomer Stephen Bounds, whose affiliation with a conservative church raised questions.
Meanwhile, incumbents handily won victories in four courthouse races -- those for sheriff, Circuit Court clerk, register of wills and three seats on the Orphans' Court.
By winning the race for state's attorney, Ms. McLendon becomes the first Republican to serve as the county's top law-enforcement official in decades. She replaces Democrat William Hymes, who did not seek re-election after 16 years in office.
Ms. McLendon -- a former county police officer, prosecutor and solicitor -- defeated Democrat Dario Broccolino with 52 percent of the vote.
The 43-year-old Ellicott City resident credited her victory to a campaign that brought her face-to-face with many voters, rather than the advertisements and direct-mail brochures that Mr. Broccolino relied on.
"Dario was a Johnny-come-lately," she said. "But he ran a good race."
Ms. McLendon said her first priority will be to talk with police, prosecutors and others in the legal community to determine what changes she should make.
During the campaign, Ms. McLendon pledged to be tougher on criminals, improve services to victims, give greater attention to cases involving juvenile defendants, limit plea bargains and increase public participation in the criminal-justice system.
Mr. Broccolino waged his campaign as a political outsider, spending more than $40,000 of his own money and proclaiming that his independence would free him from the traditions of the county's criminal-justice system.
In the end, the 50-year-old Ellicott City resident acknowledged that his position as an outsider might have cost him the election.
"It might have just been that," said Mr. Broccolino, coordinator for the Maryland State's Attorneys Association. "I don't pretend to analyze these things."
The school board race was a sometimes bitter, four-way battle for seats being vacated by board members Dana Hanna and Deborah Kendig.
"There hasn't been this kind of negative campaign, such a partisan campaign, that I can remember," said Dr. Campbell, a West Friendship veterinarian who was the top vote-getter with 32 percent of the vote.
Dr. Campbell was followed by Mr. Bounds, a lawyer from Lisbon, with 27 percent of the vote. He ran on a back-to-basics platform and criticized the school system's emphasis on self-esteem programs. He also said he wants to launch a superintendent search when the term of the current one, Michael E. Hickey, expires in two years.
In response to questions about his religious views, he said they would not interfere with his decisions about the 36,000-student school system. "What I stressed in my campaign was seeing us stress academics and excellence in the schools," Mr. Bounds said.
His chief rival was Jamie Kendrick, a 19-year-old college student from Elkridge, who placed third with 21 percent of the vote. He told Democrats in a campaign brochure that he was the only candidate who could stop Mr. Bounds.
In fourth place was retired professor Delroy Cornick with 20 percent of the vote.
In the courthouse races:
* Sheriff Michael Chiuchiolo, a Democrat, won a second term with 60 percent of the vote. He was challenged by Republican Richmond Laney, a member of the state Property Tax Assessment Appeals Board.
* For clerk of Circuit Court, Republican Margaret Rappaport -- wife of the GOP's lieutenant governor candidate, Paul Rappaport -- won a second term with 66 percent of the vote.
* Democrat Kay Hartleb won a third term as register of wills with 55 percent of the vote.
* Two incumbent judges on the Orphans' Court -- Democrat Rosemary Ford and Republican Charles Coles Jr. -- were returned to the bench. Republican Joyce Pope won the third seat.