The political landscape in the South Hills continues to be dominated by familiar names: Kortz, Levdansky and Smith.

Those three incumbents won Tuesday's contest and will stay in office representing residents in the state House.

Here's a recap of what happened:

There were no surprises in the race for the state House seat in the 38th District as incumbent William Kortz, D-Dravosburg, glided to an easy victory over Republican challenger Daniel Davis, of West Mifflin.

Mr. Kortz, 53, won a second term with about 72 percent of the vote, according to unofficial returns from the Allegheny County Elections Division.

Mr. Davis, 44, received about 27 percent of the vote.

Mr. Kortz said he saw the election as affirmation that he is doing a good job in Harrisburg and that the voters of the district want him to continue.

"I'm very, very happy and very thankful and humbled that the people want to keep us going for another two years. We are going to work on reform and that's why I ran the first time and that is why I ran again," Mr. Kortz said.

Mr. Davis said he didn't see the elections returns as a mandate but rather the exact outcome that he expected to see in a district that is 70 percent Democratic.

"If I got anywhere around 30 percent, then I achieved what I wanted to achieve. It was a hard battle for me as a Republican and there would have to be something major happen for Bill to lose. I just wanted to make sure there was a candidate and people did have a choice," Mr. Davis said.

Mr. Davis said he is unlikely to run for state office again but he expects to be on the ballot for a local office in West Mifflin next year. In the past, he has run unsuccessfully for school board and council.

It was a tight race for the 39th District House seat, but state Rep. David Levdanksy, D-Forward, won his 13th term in office, fending off a tough challenge from Republican Monica Douglas.

According to unofficial returns from Allegheny and Washington counties, Mr. Levdansky garnered 12,439 votes in Allegheny County to Ms. Douglas' 10,746.

In Washington County, Ms. Douglas, who is president of Elizabeth Borough council, won by 51 votes, collecting 3,131 votes to Mr. Levdansky's 3,080.

Ms. Douglas said she believes the close race, in a district that is just 28 percent Republican, shows that voters are dissatisfied with Mr. Levdansky's performance.

"The reason this race was so close is that people are tired of David Levdansky's record. That's what I heard when I knocked on doors. They want him to be more responsive to the needs of the district rather than what's going on in Harrisburg and Philadelphia," she said.

But Mr. Levdansky said he believes voters appreciate the hard work that he and his local and Harrisburg staff do.

The incumbent attributed the closeness of the race to the fact that Ms. Douglas mailed a number of negative campaign materials in the days leading up to the election.

Mr. Levdansky said he believed Ms. Douglas' campaign was financed largely by the National Rifle Association and its local affiliates in retribution for legislation he sponsored that would have required gun owners who notice their firearms missing or stolen to report the loss within 72 hours.

In fact, he said, one of Ms. Douglas' campaign workers at the Nottingham municipal building was carrying a gun that he refused to put away when asked by a poll worker. He said state police were called and the man was asked to leave.

Ms. Douglas said she knew nothing of the incident.

She also denied that the majority of her campaign funds came from the NRA, though she acknowledged the organization backed her campaign financially.

"I had close to 1,000 contributors to my campaign," she said.

In addition, she said, Mr. Levdansky responded to her mailings with campaign ads that attempted to tie her to the scandal surrounding former Elizabeth Borough Secretary Cora King. Ms. King was recently charged with writing checks in the amount $7,937 on her own behalf from borough funds.

Ms. Douglas said she plans to closely examine the vote totals throughout the district and check to see if they include absentee ballots. If there are precincts were the total is close, she may consider asking for a recount in those districts.

Ms. Douglas, who is the executive director of the Allegheny County Republican Party, said she is not planning any more runs for public office. She also ran unsuccessfully against Mr. Levdanksy in 2002.

It was an early night in the race for the 42nd District seat in the House of Representatives. Freshman incumbent Matt Smith, 36, of Mt. Lebanon, took the election with roughly 65 percent of the vote over challenger Jim Blazeck. Allegheny County Elections Division return totals were unofficial as of yesterday afternoon.

"By 9:30, 10 o'clock, it was obvious Matt had won. I called him and congratulated him, then I just went home after that," said Mr. Blazeck, 56, of Mt. Lebanon.

Members of the local Republican Party had gathered at an Italian restaurant after the polls closed Tuesday. A laptop with updated results projected the figures on a big screen, but the news wasn't good.

By contrast, there was a good deal of cheering down the street from the Obama headquarters in Mt. Lebanon.

Stationed throughout a large pub, Mr. Smith's supporters watched the national returns on television.

Shortly before 10 p.m. with his re-election secure, he stood on a chair and addressed the crowd.

"This is a great night for our team, for Barack Obama, the whole ticket," he said, with his wife, Eileen, and daughter Delaney nearby.

"We are going to change America, change Pennsylvania," added Mr. Smith, who has been a keen proponent of transparency in government and of cutting the legislative budget.

For Mr. Blazeck, an engineer, it was work as usual yesterday. He arrived at his job by 7 a.m.

He said he hasn't ruled out the possibility of running for office again some time. His previous experience was four years on the Mt. Lebanon school board, with a campaign that cost less than $1,000.

Recruited by the party to run against Mr. Smith late in the game, he discovered there were some big differences.

"The [financial] numbers for this are just so big, you don't get your head around that when you just start out," Mr. Blazeck said.

Filing deadline for candidacy was Feb. 12; he was approached just weeks before and scrambled to acquire the necessary signatures.

"I needed $20,000 by then and was already so far behind the eight-ball. It's difficult to imagine any different outcome than the one that occurred."

The best thing about his first foray into big-time politics, he said, "was getting to work with the people in the party."