Despite spirited challenges from Democrats in some races, Carroll County yesterday returned an all-Republican General Assembly delegation to Annapolis, led by State Sen. Larry E. Haines, who handily won a fourth term.

Haines, the district's senators since 1991, defeated political newcomer Ronald Zepp by a margin of more than 3-1.

In central Carroll's District 5A, which includes Westminster, Finksburg, Hampstead and Manchester, Dels. Carmen Amedori and Nancy R. Stocksdale turned back a challenge from Democrat Robert P. Wack.

Stocksdale, who first won her seat in 1994, led with 19,615 votes. Amedori, first elected in 1998, finished with 18,395. Wack, who campaigned hard to wrest GOP votes from the incumbents, trailed Amedori by nearly 8,000 votes.

In District 4, which straddles Carroll and Frederick counties, Del. Donald B. Elliott, a four-term incumbent from Union Bridge, defeated Thomas Morrison by a near 4-1 margin. David Brinkley, who ousted two-term Sen. Timothy Ferguson in the GOP primary, took the district's Senate seat by a similar margin.

In the new single-member district representing South Carroll, voters chose Susan W. Krebs, president of the county school board, over Democrat Kenneth Holniker, an attorney and community activist. Krebs, who defeated five other candidates in the GOP primary in the new subdistrict 9B, bested Holniker by more than 4,000 votes.

Holniker spent twice as much as Krebs in his quest to represent Carroll's fastest-growing area, which includes Eldersburg and Sykesville. "You need people to win an election, not money," said Krebs.

The last Democrat to represent the county in Annapolis was Ellen Willis Miller, who was appointed to fill Richard N. Dixon's seat when he became state treasurer in 1996. Miller lost the seat in the 1998 election.