Democrat James T. Smith Jr. was narrowly fending off Republican Douglas B. Riley in a surprisingly tight race yesterday for Baltimore County executive.

The heavily favored Smith held a slim but growing lead with 80 percent of precincts reporting in the largely Democratic county, where only two Republicans have ever been elected to the position.

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; Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens, a Democrat, was clinging to a narrow lead last night over Republican challenger Phillip D. Bissett, a former state legislator; and in Howard, incumbent County Executive James N. Robey won re-election easily in a race against Republican Steven H. Adler.

The Baltimore County election will have serious implications for the direction of the county of 750,000 residents.

Riley has pledged to upend county government. He promised to rely on community input and halt new development while focusing on revitalizing older communities. He also vowed to halt the expansion of the Towson jail.

With a tweak here and there, however, Smith would probably continue the course set by current County Executive C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, a fellow Democrat running for the 2nd District congressional seat.

Smith said he would solicit community input. He vowed to support new growth while helping older neighborhoods.

Most of all, he stressed the importance of sound management and fiscal discipline, and many of his policy proposals were short on new spending.

'Closer than expected'

"It's a close race - closer than I expected," said Ted Venetoulis, a Democrat who was county executive from 1974 to 1978.

As returns poured in last night, Riley held an early lead. But Smith stayed close and pulled ahead with 166 of 208 precincts reporting.

In the race, both candidates had to overcome the obscurity of long absences from public office.

Smith, 60, of Reisterstown, was a county councilman who had been a Circuit Court judge for 16 years before beginning his campaign.

Riley, 49, a lawyer from Towson, pledged to serve just two terms on the County Council, so he left it in 1998.

The two candidates ran relatively positive campaigns that highlighted their personal integrity and focused on economic development.

"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. "Both were good candidates running a clean campaign, both of these people could be seen as having integrity and both conveyed an image of fiscal responsibility."

Comfortable choice

After voting at the Towson Presbyterian Church yesterday, Bill Pennington, 48, a health care consultant, had kind things to say about Smith and Riley.

"Both candidates were very well qualified," said Pennington. "Though I did vote for Riley, I would be very pleased with either one."

During the race, Smith was the more cautious of the candidates, sticking to a well-choreographed campaign that unstintingly followed a plan plotted from its start a year ago.

He capitalized on raising three times as much money as Riley - nearly $1 million by late last month - and used the extra money to advertise heavily on television during the final weeks of the campaign.

Unable to afford a television campaign, Riley ran a grass-roots strategy reliant on his frequent appearances out on the trail, especially in Dundalk and other working-class communities on the county's east and west sides.

A blunt, compelling speaker, Riley portrayed Smith as a Ruppersberger clone more concerned about appeasing developers than helping older communities.

But Smith countered the attacks, offering a variety of proposals for revitalizing older neighborhoods.

Smith paraded a host of endorsements before the voters, 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.

On the Towson jail expansion, Smith said the $14 million expected cost of canceling the project was reason for not stopping it, though he said he would seek community input before going ahead with a second phase of expansion.

Riley on jail

Riley said the $73 million project was a waste of money because it would not offer enough space to alleviate crowding problems.

Riley said he would convert the site into a county office building, while enlisting other counties in building a jail in Western Maryland.

At the polls yesterday, some voters for Riley said they viewed Smith as Ruppersberger's protege.

But most voters followed party lines.

"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.

A toss-up

William Sweeney, of Idlewylde, who typically votes Republican, said he voted for Riley but didn't know much about either man.

"It was kind of a toss-up," he said.

Sun staff writers Andrew A. Green and Linda Linley contributed to this article.