Freeholders Aubrey Fenton and Stacey Jordan and county clerk candidate Gary Woodend spent a total of $732,823.67, according to an analysis of recent campaign filings from four related accounts. Included was the Republican State Committee's tab for more than $100,000 worth of mailers and postage.

Factoring in what county Republicans spent in the contested June primary race, the election cost them close to $1 million. Their election losses gave Democrats two seats on the Board of Freeholders, which has not had a Democratic member for 25 years.

"I could have spent $5 million this year and the election would have been closer, [but] the results probably wouldn't have varied," county GOP chairman Bill Layton said.

Layton pointed to national enthusiasm for Democratic President-elect Barack Obama and the retirement of Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Saxton after 24 years in the Third District as factors in the Democrats' gains.

In interviews before the election, Layton discounted the theory that a national mood favoring Democrats would trickle down to county candidates, noting that voters had stuck by the GOP locally even when voting for Democrats at the presidential level. He said yesterday that he could not have foreseen the central role the economy would take later in the election, and the wave of enthusiasm for Obama.

The three Republican candidates spent $300,000 on television advertising in the final days of the campaign.

"We knew we were losing," Layton said. "We were on network TV, and it didn't work because [voters] weren't interested in what we had to say."

Campaign sources included reliable local GOP donors and county contractors such as Pennoni Associates, Vitetta architects and CDM.

County Democrats spent $325,288.86 on successful election bids by Chris Brown and Mary Anne Reinhart for freeholder seats and Tim Tyler for the clerk's office, according to a review of their campaign filings. Brown, the deputy mayor of Evesham, lent the campaign $48,294.93.

Though outspent, Democrats reached the necessary threshold to communicate their message, said Rick Perr, the party's county chairman.

Democrats promised a more efficient, ethical and accessible government while Republicans cited their record on lowering taxes this year.

"We had better candidates and a better message and better messengers," Perr said. "I think that in a lot of cases there are a lot of people that are guilty of simply tying money into success in political campaigns. And that's erroneous."