As the 1994 election unfolded last night, Baltimore County's General Assembly delegation began to take on a new appearance, particularly in the House of Delegates.
Voters interviewed at polling places said they were splitting tickets at the state and local levels to vote for the individuals they felt would be most responsive to their demands.
One factor in close races could be an unusually high number of absentee ballots for a nonpresidential election, said Doris J. Suter, the county election board administrator.
Of about 7,000 absentee ballots mailed, 5,500 to 6,000 have been returned and they won't be counted until Thursday, she said.
In unofficial returns in the 8th District, three-term Sen. Thomas L. Bromwell, 46, trounced GOP challenger Del. John J. Bishop Jr., 45, and proclaimed it "a sweet victory after a tough primary and a tough general election. I just feel grateful to the voters of the 8th District."
Also in the 8th, incumbent GOP Dels. James F. Ports, Jr., 35, of Perry Hall, and Alfred W. Redmer, Jr., 38, of Parkville, won re-election while Democratic newcomer Katherine Klausmeier, 44, of Parkville, a child-life coordinator at St. Joseph Hospital, won the third delegate seat.
On the west side, the new 10th District was making political history by electing the county's first black members to the General Assembly.
Created after the 1990 Census, the 10th has a 62 percent black population, appeared to be on its way to electing four black legislators, a senator and three delegates.
The new boundaries crossed the city-county line, giving the district a makeup of 80 percent county residents and 20 percent city residents.
"Never before has Baltimore County had elected officials of color," said the Rev. Emmett C. Burns Jr., a black Democratic House of Delegates candidate in the 10th, who was leading the (( ticket with slightly more than half the vote counted.
In the district's Senate race, a veteran black delegate, Democrat Delores G. Kelley, 58, who moved to Randallstown from her old, city-based 42nd District, was running 3-1 ahead of a white political novice, Jerome Goodman, 65, a self-employed acoustical engineer.
