The challengers in the Pittsburgh mayor's race are battling the incumbent, each other and apathy as they seek an upset that would shatter the establishment of city politics.

The struggle for attention by the independent candidates, Kevin Acklin and Franco Dok Harris, is emblematic of a low-key election that has offered a muted contrast to the presidential and congressional contests that transfixed voters and brought record turnouts last November.

Statewide, the election at the top of the ballot, the state Supreme Court race is the only one that has attracted any attention or suspense. Despite the hundreds of thousands spent on the acrimonious face-off between Democrat Jack Panella and Republican Joan Orie Melvin, however, that election, too, has struggled for visibility, attracting more attention to the rivals' sharp-elbowed tactics than to any issues in the race.

Mark Wolosik, the Allegheny County elections director, projects local turnout at "optimistically, 30 percent."

He said the number of absentee ballot requests was below the levels of similar recent municipal election years.

"My cohorts in other counties say it's extremely quiet across the state," Mr. Wolosik said.

A Franklin & Marshall College poll last week showed the high court race within the margin of error. Ms. Orie Melvin had 22 percent and Mr. Panella had 20 percent. But 54 percent of those surveyed were undecided, a remarkably high figure for that late in an election cycle.

Voters also will fill four seats on Superior Court and two on Commonwealth Court. Allegheny County lawyers are disproportionately represented in the appellate fields. Eight of the fifteen nominees vying for the seven open seats are from Pittsburgh or its suburbs.

Political insiders have repeatedly noted that the partisan balance of the high court is at stake in the Panella-Orie Melvin clash. At last week's Kennedy Lawrence dinner, Allegheny County Democratic Chairman Jim Burn reminded the Democratic partisans that the make-up of Supreme Court is a potential factor in redistricting that will follow the 2010 Census as the court has the power to name one of the panelists who will redraw the legislative map and could end up reviewing the new congressional seats as well.

While that's a theoretical consideration likely to escape most voters, Republican leaders have issued similar warnings to their troops.

Partisans and analysts also will watch the appellate court contests for clues to the overall political character of the state. Pennsylvania has been considered a swing state in recent decades but the tide has been moving noticeably in a Democratic direction through the 1990s and the first decade of the new century, climaxing with President Barack Obama's whopping margin in capturing its electoral votes last year.

But polling throughout this recession-stricken year has suggested erosion in Democratic office-holders support in the state.

Republicans had greater overall success in appellate court elections throughout the 1990s, but that pattern was reversed in recent years. Tuesday will test the trend's endurance, suggesting whether the recent sharp rise in Democratic registration in the state is a continuing factor or a transitory effect of the presidential race.

The Pittsburgh mayor's race will test the challengers' contentions that their modestly funded campaigns will be able to exploit an overlooked lode of discontent with Mayor Luke Ravenstahl. In the final debate of the campaign on Thursday, both contended that the mayor has neglected the neighborhoods in favor of large corporate interests.

While rejecting those arguments, Mr. Ravenstahl once again boasted of his record, contending that his administration had made strides in addressing the city's financial ills. He also pointed to positive national reviews for the city in connection with the publicity surrounding its hosting of the G-20 economic summit in September.

The conventional wisdom that Mr. Ravenstahl is the overwhelming favorite is supported by history but not by any independent surveys. National polls have shown 2009 to be a tough year for the standing of incumbents at every level, from the White House on down. A recent article in Politico noted that incumbent mayors have experienced "a series of upsets and close calls" across the country this year.

But that national trend must be balanced against a Pittsburgh legacy of more than half a century in which no incumbent mayor has been ousted. And all of those re-elected were Democratic nominees, with the exception of the late Mayor Dick Caliguiri, who, as the incumbent, ran as an independent to defeat the Democratic nominee, the late Tom Foerster.

From the beginning of the race it has been clear that the hurdles confronting Mr. Acklin and Mr. Harris were that much higher because there are two of them. Insofar as this race is a referendum on the incumbent, whatever anti-Ravenstahl vote is out there has two places to go.

Recognizing that, the Acklin campaign unsuccessfully tried to get Mr. Harris out of the race with a legal challenge to his nominating petitions. Despite the tactical argument against splitting the anti-incumbent pie, both campaigns said there were never any substantial discussion on getting one or the other to withdraw voluntarily.

"Absolutely not, nothing like that every happened," said Michael Capozzoli, Mr. Harris' campaign manager.

"There might have been some incidental conversations, never anything serious," Mr. Acklin said.

Both campaigns insist that their grass roots efforts will allow them to flout the apparent odds. In relying on their ground games, they are making a virtue of political necessity.

Neither challenger has raised the kind of money that would be needed to sustain a robust media-based challenge. Neither, in fact, has collected close to the sum raised by Mr. Ravenstahl's last general election challenger, Mark DeSantis, who, despite mounting the most vigorous Republican mayoral campaign since John Tabor in 1969, pulled just under 35 percent of the 2007 vote.

"My team and my candidate -- we're out there, and we're going to have an army of people out there this weekend and election day," said Mr. Capozzoli.

Two years ago, Mr. DeSantis polled a majority in just two city wards, the 7th and the 14th in Shadyside and Squirrel Hill, the communities, coincidentally that are home to Mr. Harris and Mr. Acklin. Both realize that they will have to break out of those more liberal areas to have any chance of upsetting the man who won the other 30 wards in 2005.

"We have a greater East End presence," Mr. Harris said on his way to a Strip District campaign appearance "We're strong in Bloomfield, Garfield. We've been received well at senior centers all over the city, on the North Side.''

On Thursday, as in the previous two mayoral debates, the first neighborhoods Mr. Acklin mentioned in a taping at WPXI were Beechview and Brookline. The Squirrel Hill lawyer has sought to broaden his base with a focus on such neighborhoods, which are homes to many of the firefighters and police he mentions when he invokes his own roots.

"It's not by accident," Mr. Acklin said this week, noting that he has worn out multiple pairs of shoes meeting voters at the doors of those and other neighborhoods. Two years ago, Mr. Ravenstahl won easily in all of those wards, as he did again in the face of a primary challenge from city Councilman Patrick Dowd int May.

But in the same election, those South Hills communities were receptive to another insurgent candidacy, that of Natalia Rudiak, who captured the Democratic nomination for City Council and is unopposed on Tuesday.

The largest ward in these communities and the second largest in the city is the 19th, which includes much of Brookline, Beechview and some surrounding communities. Pete Wagner, the ward chairman said that, despite Mr. Acklin's efforts, he expected the surrounding communities to produce another strong showing for the incumbent.

Mr. Wagner's brother, state Auditor General Jack Wagner is opposing Dan Onorato, a close ally of Mr. Ravenstahl, in the race for the Democratic nomination for governor next year.

"That's not a problem for me, I don't think this has anything to do with the governor's race," Mr. Wagner said. "I'm passing out the slate card."

Mr. Acklin said last week that his hopes were realistic in the context of an election in which fewer than 70,000 Pittsburghers may vote. Two years ago, just about 68,000 votes were cast in the mayor's race.

"We're looking at a target vote of 30,000 to win this race," he said. "That's a remarkably small number."

The turnout Tuesday is unlikely to be driven up by many other local races. Sheriff Bill Mullen is unopposed for re-election as are most of the members of city and county council. Councilman Bill Peduto, a Democrat, is being challenged by Republican Greg Neugebaur in a district that includes Shadyside and Bloomfield.

The only county council incumbents with opposition are Republican Matt Drozd, who faces Democrat Thomas Michalow in the North Hills, and Democrat Michael J. Finnerty, who is being challenged by Republican Dean Petrone in the South Hills.

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