Democrat James T. Smith Jr. won the race for Baltimore County executive yesterday, defeating Republican Douglas B. Riley with a careful campaign preaching sound management and fiscal responsibility.
With all precincts reporting, Smith was the unofficial winner with a lead of more than 30,000 votes.
In other county executive races in the Baltimore region, Republican incumbent James M. Harkins scored an easy victory over Democratic challenger Paul Gilbert in the race for Harford executive; Anne Arundel incumbent Janet S. Owens, a Democrat, defeated Republican challenger Phillip D. Bissett; and in Howard, incumbent Democrat James N. Robey won re-election easily in a race against Republican Steven H. Adler.
At his election night party in Hunt Valley, Smith declared victory shortly after 11 p.m. He won 57 percent of the vote.
"We're going to emphasize education, promote public safety, [and] renew our mature neighborhoods and older business districts," Smith said in an interview.
In Towson, a dejected Riley thanked his volunteers and said he would stand behind Smith. He attributed Smith's victory to the Democrat's superior fund raising.
"I have no regrets," he said. "I ran the best race I could run. Jim Smith ran a good race as well and had the additional resources to get his message out. The voters responded to that."
If his well-choreographed campaign is any guide, Smith promises to be an organized, detail-oriented county executive upon taking helm of county government and its $1.9 billion budget next month.
His campaign pledges, which he laid out in exhaustive position papers released at regular intervals toward the end of the campaign, do not augur significant changes for the county's 750,000 residents.
Smith vowed to solicit community input in decisions. And he offered a variety of initiatives, from giving residents incentives to fix up old neighborhoods to involving the elderly more in schools, that would not require much new spending.
"Smith has given us an image of a very fiscally responsible, management-oriented candidate, and that would appeal to folks who want to make sure the county is well run," said Dennis Muniak, a political science professor at Towson University who has followed the campaign.
Born in Baltimore, Smith, 60, grew up in Reisterstown, where his family was active in the local recreation council, Jaycees and Democratic club. In 1978, he was elected to the County Council, which he left in 1985 to become a Circuit Court judge.
With heavy television advertising during the past few weeks, Smith overcame the obscurity that came with his 16 years of judicial service.
Smith raised nearly $1 million dollars, three times the sum collected by Riley.
The Democrat was fortunate to run against a rival who also faced name recognition troubles - Riley left the County Council in 1998 - but Smith enjoyed the fact that most county voters sided with his party.
Ted Venetoulis, a Democrat who was county executive from 1974 to 1978, said the race was closer than expected but Smith managed to persuade Democratic voters to stick with their party.
"That's the way it should go," Venetoulis said. Current County Executive C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger "has done a reasonable job, and the judge is close to Dutch in many ways, and there was no reason to change."
Baltimore County voters have elected only two Republicans to executive.
During the campaign, Riley, 49, a lawyer from Towson, portrayed Smith as a clone of Ruppersberger who would value developers over residents living in older communities. Riley promised to upend county government, halting new development and the expansion of the Towson jail. Smith said he would go forward with the first phase of construction but seek community input before starting the second phase that would add more beds.
Smith also offered a variety of proposals for revitalizing the older neighborhoods. He preached the importance of fiscal responsibility.
And he paraded before the voters a host of endorsements, including support from Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley and Reps. Benjamin L. Cardin and Elijah E. Cummings, Democrats from the 3rd and the 7th congressional districts, respectively.
"I feel excited for the people of Baltimore County, because I am totally committed to doing the things I said in the campaign," Smith said.
Riley said his campaign message resonated well with voters in the summer and fall, but he could not overcome his opponent's spending advantage.
"It fell short only because of the disparity in fund raising," said Riley, who tried to raise money during the final days of the campaign to pay for television advertising on the major stations.
At the polls yesterday, voters for Riley said they viewed Smith as Ruppersberger's protege. But most voters said they didn't know either candidate very well, and they voted with their respective party.
"I didn't know anything really about either, except what I saw in commercials, and I went with Smith," said Rhonda Malhotra, a Democrat from Randallstown.
Voters indicated they liked both candidates, who ran relatively positive campaigns that highlighted their personal integrity.
"We can be cynical about some races but should look at this race as a reason for optimism," said Dennis Muniak, a political science professor at Towson University who has been following the race.
Sun staff writers Andrew Green and Linda Linley contributed to this article.