Baltimore County Sheriff Norman M. Pepersack Jr. won a convincing victory over his challenger yesterday, while the incumbent clerk of the Circuit Court defeated her opponent by a wide margin with all the precincts votes counted.
In other courthouse races, county voters elected the two incumbents and the daughter-in-law of a retiring incumbent for the three Orphans' Court judgeships. After slipping briefly behind his challenger, the longtime register of wills won comfortably.
County State's Attorney Sandra A. O'Connor and judges Lawrence R. Daniels and John O. Hennegan were unopposed.
In the sheriff's race, incumbent Republican Pepersack and Democratic challenger Charles W. "Chuck" Norris Jr. both had said they felt optimistic as the polls closed last night.
After a victory by almost 22,000 votes, Sheriff Pepersack said early today, "I am naturally very, very pleased with the outcome and it gives me an opportunity to continue the things I've been doing. And people must think I've been doing a good job."
Mr. Norris had been cautious but hopeful after touring precincts. But with 98 percent of the vote in, he said, "Well, we ran a good campaign and did the best we could." He said he was proud that his campaign "intentionally stayed away" from the personal attacks that characterized other races.
Since he was elected in 1990, Sheriff Pepersack, 60, has favored a larger role for the office in addition to the regular duties of transporting prisoners, providing courthouse security and serving legal papers. He was with the state police for 23 years.
He said the 56 deputy sheriffs could be a visible deterrent to crime, although they wouldn't be on patrol or be actively seeking out criminals.
Mr. Norris, 48, said the sheriff's office needed to "focus on its primary function, which is service to the courts, and not be reaching out to police-like functions."
Mr. Norris was with the county Police Department for 23 years and is chief of security at Eastpoint Mall. He said he felt he could do a better job managing the office's duties.
For clerk of Circuit Court, Democratic incumbent Suzanne Mensh beat Republican Joyce Grimm, a county employee who assigns trials to judges each morning. Ms. Grimm works in Ms. Mensh's office but is not under the jurisdiction of Ms. Mensh, who is a state official.
Ms. Grimm said she decided to run because of low morale in the clerk's office and complaints about incomplete files.
Ms. Mensh said the problems have been abated with modernization of the filing systems.
"We handle 26,500 cases a year, civil and criminal," said Ms. Mensh, who was an Orphans' Court judge for 24 years. She resigned in 1986 before running for her first term as court clerk.
Six candidates ran for the three judge seats on the Orphans' Court, which deals with wills and estates and does not require a law degree.
The two incumbents -- Chief Judge Grace G. Connolly, a Democrat, and Republican Sandra L. O'Connell-Hughes -- led the field of six, followed by Democrat Julie L. Ensor, daughter-in-law of retiring judge John Ensor.
Republican Victoria C. Chambers was fourth with Democrat Catharine A. Davis and Republican Edward Fowler trailing.
Incumbent Democrat Peter J. Basilone finished well ahead of Republican Patrick L. McDonough for register of wills, the administrator for the Orphans' Court.