Harris County District Attorney-elect Chuck Rosenthal's showing in Tuesday's election was enough to secure the job now held by his popular boss, but his margin of victory fell short of expectations in a county dominated by Republicans.

In complete but unofficial returns, Rosenthal received 54 percent of the vote, while his Democratic opponent, James S. "Jim" Dougherty, got 46 percent.

That's a surprisingly strong showing for an unheralded Democrat who ran a low-key campaign against a well-financed career prosecutor backed by one of the county's most popular political figures - retiring District Attorney John B. Holmes Jr.

Dougherty's effort surprised both Rosenthal, the county's first new district attorney in 20 years, and Holmes, who will leave office at the end of the year.

"The people talking to me said this was going to be a walkover-type race because the traditional Democratic base had nothing to bring them out," Rosenthal said Wednesday. "I had expected, based on what people told me, to get 58 percent or more. So when the figures were in the mid-50s, I was surprised."

Dougherty said he was pleased with his showing, and he attributed it to issues he raised in the campaign, such as the number of death penalties sought locally and the need for programs that address the root of such crimes as domestic violence.

Holmes said he had hoped Rosenthal would get more support.

"If you look at previous elections, I've always done better than that, and I would have hoped he would have at least done as well," Holmes said. "And that's because Chuck has a good reputation in his own right, and he had some ads with me in them.

"But it doesn't matter now. The rest is just ego."

After he announced last year that he would not seek another term, Holmes said he would not support any candidate. But he later threw his political weight behind Rosenthal by appearing in television ads saying he would vote for Rosenthal.

That tacit endorsement, along with Rosenthal's vow to run the office in much the same manner as Holmes, was credited with helping Rosenthal fight through a crowded field of opponents in the Republican primary.

Rosenthal, who also enjoyed the backing of prosecutors and staff in Holmes' office, ran a scaled-back version of the same campaign for the general election.

Richard Murray, a political science professor at the University of Houston, said that may have contributed to Rosenthal's weaker-than-expected showing. Murray also said Holmes' support couldn't be expected to carry as much weight in a general election.

But the biggest factor contributing to Rosenthal's results, Murray said, was the relatively high turnout of Democratic voters and the slow increase of minority voters in Harris County, who he said are more likely to vote Democratic.

"I think we're beginning to see the first vestiges of the declining Anglo vote in the county," said Murray, who said that Anglos are the local Republican party's strongest base.

Rosenthal's numbers and those of other successful Republicans, such as Tax Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt, show that the Anglo base is remaining steady or declining slightly, he said.

In the tax assessor-collector race, complete but unofficial results show Bettencourt won 57 percent of the vote, compared with 41 percent for his Democratic opponent, John Webb, and about 2 percent for Libertarian Peter Elloway.

While that was more than enough to win, Bettencourt's numbers might fall into the same category as Rosenthal's.

The leveled Anglo base, combined with the presence of a presidential election and a strong get-out-the-vote campaign targeted at minority supporters of the proposed downtown arena, created a less favorable climate for Republicans than in recent elections, Murray said.