Party affiliation apparently mattered more than money in this year's Carroll County elections, as Democrats suffered a series of smashing defeats despite raising as much or more cash than many of their Republican opponents, a review of final campaign finance reports filed yesterday shows.

In the county commissioners race, Republican incumbent Julia Walsh Gouge raised and spent the most money. She also received the most votes. But fellow Republicans Perry L. Jones Jr. and Dean L. Minnich won decisively even though they were among a cluster of commissioner candidates from both major parties who raised $13,000 to $17,000.

Both finished with more than twice as many votes as the leading Democrat, Neil Ridgely, who raised more money.

Minnich, who finished second to Gouge, raised the least among the six major-party commissioner candidates. He allowed his fund raising to taper off in the last two months of the campaign, saying he had raised more money than he expected - about $13,000.

Several state delegate races also saw Democrats outspend their Republican foes but lose badly.

In the contest for the newly created District 9B delegate seat representing South Carroll, Democrat Kenneth Holniker outspent his Republican opponent Susan W. Krebs by more than $10,000 but lost by almost 4,000 votes. Holniker, an Eldersburg attorney, lent himself thousands of dollars and bought cable television advertising, a rarity for Carroll candidates.

But Krebs, the departing president of the county school board, said she was never worried about her opponent's financial advantages.

"No amount of money can buy an election," she said. "I have people on my side, so I don't need the money."

Though his final finance reports were not available yesterday, Westminster physician Robert R. Wack raised more this year than Republican incumbents Carmen Amedori and Nancy R. Stocksdale in his bid for a delegate seat in District 5A representing central and northern Carroll.

Both defeated him handily.

After the election Nov. 5, candidates and political analysts said no Carroll Democrat could have overcome the 79 percent majority GOP gubernatorial candidate Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. won in the county. Yesterday's finance reports seemed to confirm that notion.

"I'm not sure there was any way I could have won this time out, no matter how much money I raised," said Democratic commissioner candidate Jeannie Nichols, who raised more than Minnich and about the same as Jones but finished a distant fifth.

With about $27,000 raised and $26,000 spent, Gouge was the clear money champion. She used the money for signs, newspaper advertisements and direct-mail brochures, she said.

"I was very pleased with what we raised in the end," she added. "We were able to do what we needed to do with it."

Gouge received her biggest contribution from a Maryland Association of Realtors' political action committee. The $3,000 contribution, paired with a $1,000 donation given by the group before the September primary, was made despite Gouge's talk of slowing residential growth.

Gouge said she will keep those promises but said she thinks the Realtors respect her willingness to hear their concerns. She also said they share her concerns that housing in the county has become too expensive for longtime residents.

"I don't think they want anything from me," she said. "I think ... they just know where I'm coming from."

A representative for the Realtors' political committee did not return calls seeking comment. Gouge also received numerous contributions from activists who have battled residential growth during the past four years.

Among the other winners, Minnich's $13,000 total consisted almost entirely of small donations with no clear trend characterizing his supporters, while Jones received donations from several large landowners and landlords. But Jones said throughout his campaign that he wouldn't be beholden to large landowners, even if some are old friends from the farm community around Union Bridge.

Though all data was not available because candidates had to have their reports postmarked, not submitted, by the end of yesterday, it appeared the commissioner candidates raised similar amounts to those collected during the 1998 campaign.