DURHAM - Tracey Cline, a veteran prosecutor who ran a campaign based on moving beyond the Duke lacrosse case and shifting the focus to the juvenile- and gang-crime plaguing the city, appeared to have prevailed handily over three Democratic challengers and, barring any unforeseen write-in candidates, will be the county's next district attorney.

In a county that saw its last elected district attorney ousted and jailed for a day for his misconduct in the Duke lacrosse case, the voters selected as prosecutor someone who advised investigators early on how to get DNA samples from 46 players on the team.

"The way we pitched Tracey was she was a DA that Durham could be proud of and someone who could help move past all the blemishes," said Zack Hawkins, her campaign manager and chairman of the state's Young Democrats. "She's someone who could step into the office and run things immediately. You can't be judged by your bosses. You just can't be."

In an election that had four Democrats fighting for the top prosecutor's post and no Republicans on the ballot, Cline, 45, captured 46 percent of the vote in unofficial and incomplete returns.

The district attorney's job, which comes with a base pay of $116,112, is open two years sooner than it should have been.

Mike Nifong, the last elected prosecutor, was stripped of his law license and tossed from office with more than two years left in his four-year term.

David Saacks, a veteran prosecutor in the Durham office, was appointed by the governor last fall to be district attorney until the November election. As a Wake County resident, Saacks could not seek election to the post.

With 93 percent of the precincts reporting, Freda Black, 46, a former prosecutor who was forced out of the Durham office in 2005 by Nifong and lost a bid to unseat her rival in 2006, came in second with 33 percent of the votes.

Keith Bishop, 45, a lawyer in private practice who ran unsuccessfully for district attorney in 2006, received 12.6 percent of the votes with 58 of 62 precincts counted.

Mitchell Garrell, 52, an assistant district attorney in the Durham office for 13 years who said he would prohibit death-penalty cases if he were running the office, received nearly 7 percent.

Cline, the chief assistant district attorney, received the most endorsements -- from the Independent Weekly, the Herald-Sun, the People's Alliance and the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People.

In a primary with a huge turnout -- boosted by the presence at the top of the ticket of Barack Obama, who won 75 percent of the vote -- candidates endorsed by the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People did well in all the races.

Several key issues emerged in the campaign for district attorney -- how to tackle a backlog of cases, getting to the root of gang problems and the role of prosecutors in the community.

The specter of the Duke lacrosse case haunted the two assistant district attorneys during the campaign.

Cline and Garrell both tried to distance themselves from their former boss, saying they were tending to their own cases and not checking behind the county's chief prosecutor.

But Cline, according to State Bar testimony, advised investigators how to draw up an order for DNA testing of 46 players on the Duke lacrosse team, three of whom were later charged.

Defense lawyers who represented the Duke lacrosse players fighting the false gang-rape allegations that eventually were dismissed by state Attorney General Roy Cooper said that they were told Nifong had conferred with Cline on the case and that she would be involved if there were a trial.

Black and Bishop distributed fliers and postcards with pictures of Cline in a Nifong campaign T-shirt and sitting alongside the former district attorney in a courtroom hearing on the lacrosse case.