LAUREL – Republican John Giannetti will not serve District 21 for the first time since 1999, ending a tumultuous campaign year that saw a final, desperate act to keep his seat in the Maryland state Senate.

That act – switching parties from his lifelong Democratic allegiance – sealed a fate already expected by the district’s politically inclined. In a district in which Democrats overwhelm Republicans two-to-one, Giannetti acknowledged last night that his switch came at a troubling time for the GOP, but pledged to run for office again under the same party affiliation.

“I think I picked the worst possible moment to switch to Republican,” Giannetti said. “Republicans are taking a beating nationally. Party changes in the state of Maryland aren’t a one-way street. This isn’t the last elected office I’ll run for, for sure.”

He declined to say for which office he would run.

Bob Mittendorff, one of Giannetti’s campaign workers and funders, went a step further in blaming the defeat on the general drop in support for Republican candidates.

“Anything related to Republicans is going down the drain,” he said. “The Iraq war is a big issue, and all the Democrats just voted straight down the line.”

Giannetti did, however, get serious support from party leaders long before he announced his switch in Baltimore in late September. State Republicans, who may have been emboldened by Giannetti’s record of occasionally voting alongside Republicans, had courted him to switch parties for months.

“As a Democrat, I was more conservative than most but not as conservative as some,” Giannetti said. “As a Republican, I was more liberal than most but not as liberal as some. I fit into both parties well.”

Because of the switch, the race was marked by bizarre turns: Rarely do voters see the same two candidates run against each other in a party primary and in the general elections. But Giannetti found a loophole in the state’s “sore loser” law when GOP primary winner John Stafford stepped aside to allow party leaders to transfer the nomination to the former Democrat.

Stranger still, Giannetti found himself performing the Heimlich maneuver on Rosapepe in an Annapolis restaurant in February, before the race heated up, as the Democratic challenger choked on a piece of seafood.

And heat up it did: District 21 voters were bombarded with mailings throughout the summer that had the candidates accusing one another of sign-stealing, accepting money from Big Tobacco and liquor interests and mudslinging. In one ad, Giannetti appeared covered with mud asking “I save his life, and this is the thanks I get?”

Last night, Giannetti said his own ads in the primary were ineffective with voters, and he said he took the gloves off in the aftermath.

“I don’t know if in any campaign I’ve ever seen, there have been as many twists and turns,” he said.

“Certainly it does not appear the message we had out there resonated, and we have to reevaluate.”

The race, too, was highly expensive: Both Giannetti and Rosapepe had extremely well-funded and high-spending campaigns, especially for the office for which they were vying. The Giannetti camp raised about $463,000 and had spent about $353,000 as of late last month, according to the National Center for the Study of Elections. Rosapepe raised about $536,000 and spent about $520,000 the same period.

Giannetti said he raised less than $100,000 in his last election.

Giannetti, 42, served in the Maryland House of Delegates for a term before beating incumbent Arthur Dorman in 2002 in a similarly competitive primary for the state senate position. He is a graduate of the University of Maryland law school in Baltimore and a founding partner of Renaissance Law Firm and has used his judicial experience in serving on the judicial proceedings committee, where he was a champion of juvenile justice reform.

Known as an energetic lawmaker, Giannetti has often lauded his relationship with university students and holds tailgates during university football games. He once found himself engulfed in a tailgating controversy after College Park City Councilman John Krouse complained to state officials that Giannetti was serving students alcohol at those tailgates.

Giannetti’s future plans aren’t settled, he said, but he plans to remain engaged in the community after talking things over with his wife.

“Once you’re married, you don’t make these decisions by yourself,” Giannetti said. “I’m a lawyer first and foremost, and I’ll always be a lawyer.”

Contact reporters Kevin Rector and Mike Silvestri at rectordbk@gmail.com.