To some extent, these opposing views encapsulate the race in the 15th Legislative District comprising western Beaver County:

"We're on the road to progress in Beaver County. It's slow, but it's working. We're never going to have the steel mills providing thousands and thousands of jobs again, but we can provide a thousand new jobs." -- Democrat Vincent Biancucci

"We're not a credible place for a company to locate. Why would you come to Beaver County instead of Cranberry? ... The only reason unemployment's not through the roof is that 15,000 people have moved out." -- Republican Todd Hockenberry

Mr. Biancucci, 66, the incumbent, touts his connections with Gov. Ed Rendell and other Democratic leaders, his long experience as an aide to his predecessor, Nick Colafella, and his sense of the possible in terms of economic development as reasons for voters to keep him in office.

Mr. Hockenberry, 40, vice president of a small high-tech company in Franklin Park, believes the key to Beaver County's future is encouraging more companies like his to move there.

Mr. Biancucci believes in working the system to make realistic progress, one development grant and one road project at a time. He points to the retail boom in Center, to the new Green Garden Road bridge, to the Route 60 paving project and to the future rebuilding of Kane Road as evidence that his brand of quiet leadership is paying off.

Mr. Hockenberry believes in something more like a revolution. As he sees it, the state needs to revamp its business taxes and regulatory structure to encourage entrepreneurship, and that other state issues can be better addressed in a thriving economy.

"We have to change the culture, the environment for business in Pennsylvania," he said. "As things are, we drive jobs out."

And until that business environment changes, he said, things such as retail development and individual business grants are window dressing.

"Handing out big fat cartoon checks to favored companies is not an answer. ... I'm talking about different kinds of companies: Small, nimble, entrepreneurial, results-driven companies that will go out and compete in a global economy."

Mr. Hockenberry sees great potential in Beaver County, "the best of all worlds," but believes leaders have to keep pursuing brownfield development, capitalize on the riverfronts and make the county a leader in connectivity.

"We have got to wire Beaver County," he said. "We need to have 100 percent wireless coverage in Beaver, for free." As he sees it, high-speed Internet access is crucial in the modern economy. "I consider it similar to power lines and roadways in terms of attracting business."

Mr. Biancucci agrees on the need for economic development, but believes things are already moving because of the partnership between Democratic leaders in Beaver and the Democratic governor, Mr. Rendell, who was elected in 2002, the same year as Mr. Biancucci.

"The governor's economic stimulus plan is starting to pay dividends," he said, and because of state involvement "there are currently 50-plus projects going on around Beaver County."

He pointed to the grand openings at Kohl's and Marshall's in Center as evidence that things are turning around, projects helped by many leaders working in partnership.

Mr. Biancucci said that, along with economic development, a primary focus for him in the next term will be health care, led by a Rendell plan called Cover All Kids.

"In Pennsylvania, only about 6 percent of kids are not covered" by health insurance, he said, "but in Beaver County, it's 11 percent, and no one yet knows why. Why is it higher than in Allegheny County?"

Along with addressing that, he wants to expand the Adult Basic plan to get more people covered. "Right now, there are more people on the waiting list than there are people covered," he said.

Finally, he wants to increase income limits for the PACE program to make sure older adults can also get health care.

"That's particularly significant because of the age of my constituency," he said.

Mr. Biancucci also wants to continue the fight for property tax reform.

"We had a gentlemen's agreement when we broke for the summer," he said, but the Republicans backed off.

Mr. Biancucci, who lives in Center, enjoys a registration advantage of about 58 percent as well as the advantages of incumbency. A former music teacher, he was an aide to Mr. Colafella for 17 years, and says his experience and connections serve him and his district well.

He said that, after a primary haunted by the legislative pay raise, something he voted against and did not accept, voters had been more responsive this fall.

"I don't know if people just finally understand, or if we just didn't manage to get the message out in the primary," he said.

Mr. Hockenberry, who lives in Beaver, hopes to break through the local tradition of Democratic dominance. "I'm trying to give the message that there is a two-party system in Beaver County," he said.

While he touts both his Christian faith and his generally conservative outlook on his Web site, he said he disliked the "Christian conservative" label. He said in politics, faith should be a matter of following your principles rather than promoting your specific beliefs.

For him, following principles means occasional breaks from party orthodoxy. He considers himself an environmentalist, for example, though he believes in giving companies incentives to clean up rather than putting them out of business.

In general, though, he sees government in a supporting role.

"The government's job is to unleash the potential and creativity of the people," he said.

Mr. Biancucci thinks the leashes have been removed. "There are a lot of things already being done in Beaver County," he said.