Despite his widespread support in the legal and African-American communities, it appeared last night that Baltimore County voters might once again reject Judge Alexander Wright Jr.'s bid to retain a seat on the Circuit Court bench.

With about half the precincts reporting, Wright was trailing Judge Michael J. Finifter, Judge Ruth A. Jakubowski and Dundalk lawyer Patrick Cavanaugh in the race for three Circuit Court positions. But he was within striking distance of Finifter.

Baltimore County has never elected an African-American to a countywide position. Wright has the most experience of the four judicial candidates and is widely considered a fair and competent judge.

He became the county's first African-American Circuit Court judge in 1998, when Gov. Parris N. Glendening appointed him to the position.

But he lost the election for circuit judge in 2000, when then-District Judge Robert N. Dugan challenged the appointed candidates, Wright and Judge Kathleen G. Cox. Wright came in third.

Glendening named Wright to the bench again that year to fill a vacancy created by a retirement. At the time, the governor called the county's record of minority judicial appointments "unacceptable."

A graduate of City College, Morgan State University and the University of Maryland Law School, Wright, 53, has served as a public defender and an assistant state's attorney. He also has been counsel to several state departments: employment and training; economic and employment development; and the office of judicial affairs.

From 1993 to 1998, Wright was a District Court judge in Baltimore County.

He was running this year on the "sitting judges" ticket, the group of judges approved by the judicial nominating committee and appointed by the governor.

Jakubowski, a longtime Baltimore County trial lawyer, and Finifter, a former state delegate from Pikesville, were the others on that ticket.

Cavanaugh, meanwhile, challenged the traditional judicial nomination process.

Judicial candidates are nominated by countywide committees and are appointed by the governor. But before securing their 15-year terms, Circuit Court judges must run in an open election.

Although the judicial nominating committee approved Cavanaugh previously, this year he ran against the governor-appointed candidates without going through the process.

That became a key part of his campaign, as he and his supporters asked voters to support the candidate who was "the alternative to Glendening appointees."

During the race, Cavanaugh shrugged off criticisms that he was responsible for the race's unusually political tone. "I'm taking politics out of the back room and taking them into the sunlight," he said.

Last night, those efforts appeared to be paying off. With accusations of political deals, incompetence and disloyalty, this fall's race was the nastiest judicial contest many legal observers said they had seen in Baltimore County.

In an unprecedented move, the wife of an elected Circuit Court judge started a political action committee supporting Cavanaugh, Jakubowski and Wright - pointedly leaving out Finifter, one of the governor-appointed candidates on the "sitting judges" ticket.

Molly Dugan, Judge Dugan's wife, said she formed the PAC after talking with dozens of lawyers about their preferences for the bench.

Finifter faced attacks on his qualifications throughout the campaign. The 45-year-old Pikesville resident had little courtroom experience before his appointment, and detractors said political connections - he represented Pikesville in the House of Delegates for eight years - earned him the approval of the judicial nominating committee. But throughout the campaign, Finifter, an accountant, had the public support of running mates Wright and Jakubowski.