WEST CHESTER — The leader of the Chester County Republican Party said that the sweep his candidates delivered of county row offices proved his belief that voters are satisfied with the way their county is being run, even if they may have had problems with the way things had been going in Washington in past years.

"There was some disappointment with what was occurring in Washington in 2006 and 2008," said Joseph "Skip" Brion, the chairman of the county GOP committee, in an interview Wednesday, after seeing his slate of countywide candidates roll up margins that had not been seen since the 1990s.

"A lot of the Republicans in our county were upset with the economy and the war in Iraq," he said. "And we felt like we lost some of them in the national and state elections. But we never felt that we lost them locally. This year, people took the time to look at our candidates, and they came back to us."

But Brion's counterpart in the Democratic Party, committee Chairwoman Michelle Vaughan, said she believed her party's poor showing Tuesday came about because of similar concerns by voters about the national picture. She said she did not believe it was a rejection of her party's row office candidates, whom she said were well-qualified and hard-working.

"You have to put things in the proper perspective. The election results were largely influenced by the state of the economy and the nation trends" of some voters feelings less than secure with the administration of President Obama. She pointed to the Republican victories in gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia being comparable to her party's loss in the county elections.

She said the Republicans had pressed their registered voters to "not let what happened last year happen again," meaning a defection to Democratic candidates. Because of such tactics, a surprising 60 percent of those casting straight party ballots were Republicans, she said.

Vaughn and her fellow Democrats had high hopes for this year's municipal and county elections, pointing to the narrowing gap between registered Republicans and Democrats.

For this election, Republicans outnumbered Democrats by 149,350 to 126,350, with 53,376 independent or third-party voters. That is a voter ratio of less than 1.2 to 1, far less than it was as recently as 1980. The number of Democrats has continued to increase even after the successes in 2008, when 124,640 Democrats were registered in the presidential election, versus 150,118 Republicans.

In the past two off-year municipal elections when county row office seats were on the ballot, the Democrats had been able to close to within single-digit margins. Current Commissioner Kathi Cozzone had come within 3 percent in 2005 of upsetting newcomer Val DiGiorgio in the race for county controller, for example.

But on Wednesday, DiGiorgio, now the Republican incumbent, polled 41,783 votes to Democratic challenger Jim Reilly's 27,635, or 60 percent to 39 percent. (All vote totals are unofficial until certified by the county Board of Elections.)

In other results, Republican Ann Duke bested her Democratic opponent, Barbara Kipp Stone, in the race for county treasurer. Duke won 41,854 votes to Stone's 26,006, or 61 percent to 38 percent. When Stone, with her long experience in finance, ran for treasurer in 2005, she pulled 44 percent of the vote to incumbent republican Alan Randzin's 54 percent.

For clerk for courts, retired executive Frank McElwaine beat media businessman Mike McGann with 42,438 votes to 26,429 votes, or 61 percent to 38 percent. And Dr. Steven Dickter won the race against Dr. Megan Lynott for coroner with 42,180 votes to 26,968, again a margin of 61 percent to 39 percent.

Brion said that he did not believe that the national mood played a significant role in the GOP sweep of county offices. Instead, he said that voters looked at the financial stability of the county, the AAA bond rating, the inclusion of the county in the rank of best places to raise a family, and decided not to change course.

"I think that we have the best (party organization) in the state, and that they work hard to get our message to the voters," Brion said. "That message is that we have the best candidates, and that we believe we are doing well as a county because of the elected official who work in the courthouse."

To contact staff writer Michael P. Rellahan, send an e-mail to mrellahan@dailylocal.com.