Mark Mustio Re-Elected to 44th House District

Incumbent state Rep. Mark Mustio has won re-election for his seat against Democrat challenger Mark Scappe.

Mustio, a former chairman of the Moon Township Board of Supervisors, kept hold of his seat in the state's 44th house district, drawing nearly 62 percent of the vote. 

“I’m just really excited,” said Mustio, who was celebrating the victory Tuesday alongside family and friends in Moon.

“It’s a really nice feeling to be re-elected by your district and to be given the chance to do some more work for them," he said.

Mustio was first elected to the seat in a 2003 special election.

“We have two issues that are foremost,” he said of his coming term. “That would be transportation funding and pension reform. Those will have a direct effect on our income and on our property tax.”

Earlier this year, Mustio lost the GOP nomination for the state’s 37th senate district to Mt. Lebanon business owner D. Raja. Raja lost his bid Tuesday for the district to Democratic state Rep. Matt Smith.

Scappe, who is the vice president of the Coraopolis-based engineering firm RBS Consultants, said he has no immediate plans to re-enter the public service.

The former president of the Moon Area School Board, who was ousted from the seat in the 2011 municipal election, gained 38 percent of the vote Tuesday. He said he congratulated the Mustio campaign for its victory.

“Elections are funny,” Scappe said. “We had an upticket this year, and it was competitive with the Romney-Obama and Congressional races. But there are a lot of factors that play into elections.”