Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens, a Democrat from Millersville, was clinging to a narrow lead last night over Republican challenger Phillip D. Bissett, a Mayo resident and former state legislator.
With about two-thirds of precincts reporting, Owens had about 52 percent of the vote to Bissett's 48 percent. Her re-election campaign focused on her desire to finish the work she started four years ago when she ousted Republican John G. Gary in a stunning upset.
"We are in pretty good shape," said Bob DiPietro, a spokesman for the Owens campaign, who added that Owens had anticipated that Bissett would benefit from high turnout by Republican voters eager to move former Rep. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. into the governor's mansion.
During the fall campaign, Owens never formally endorsed Democrat Kathleen Kennedy Townsend for governor.
"Ehrlich has big coattails - very big coattails," DiPietro said. "We figured it would be close because of that."
In backing Owens, 58, voters didn't appeared bothered by perceived missteps such as her decision to sign a development pact with the owner of the Parole Plaza near Annapolis before residents had signed off on design standards. Bissett also had charged that Owens' husband, Baltimore attorney David M. Sheehan, meddles in local government.
Bissett, 46, who works as a lobbyist in Annapolis for a company that manufactures devices that keep drunken drivers off the road, spent months doggedly attacking Owens' policies on education, law enforcement and land preservation.
"This is going to be a 1-percent race one way or the other," Bissett said about 9:30 p.m. "We saw the weakness from Day One."
The county executive race was low-key in nature, largely because Owens didn't attend neighborhood candidate forums. A spokesman for her campaign said she was too busy with county business and previously scheduled events.
Bissett complained that Owens' absence made it difficult to provide voters with a contrast. He said that his inability to raise more campaign money - as of Oct. 20 Bissett had collected $96,000 to Owens' $582,000 -prohibited him from running TV ads and sending out major mailings.
Still, Bissett said that money was not a "panacea" for political shortcomings.
"Look what's happening here tonight," he said, referring to the narrowness of his opponent's lead.
In the months before the election, Bissett portrayed himself as a tested leader whose eight years in the General Assembly had prepared him to grapple with a looming state budget deficit. Bissett was appointed to replace Del. Aris T. Allen after Allen's death in 1991, and went on to win election in 1994.
Although analysts had predicted a heavy turnout by Republicans eager to support Ehrlich in his bid for governor, Bissett said that he wasn't riding the former congressman's coattails. Anne Arundel has a strong record of electing politically conservative candidates, even though Democrats outnumber Republicans.
Bissett said he expected that some residents would vote along party lines - hoping for a Republican sweep from the State House down to the local level.
Some Anne Arundel residents said that they voted for Bissett because they are dissatisfied with Owens.
Riva resident Steve Alexander, 42, said he supported Bissett because the candidate is a fiscal conservative.