HARRISBURG — Nearly all legislative incumbents who were on the ballot in Pennsylvania won, so party strategists and political consultants can move on to a new challenge — the fall election in which control of the state House will be very much up for grabs.

Reps. Bill DeWeese, D-Greene, and John Perzel, R-Philadelphia, won their parties' nominations Tuesday despite facing public-corruption criminal charges, but Lehigh County Republican Rep. Karen Beyer lost to a 23-year-old upstart who attacked her for supporting budget deals negotiated by Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell and for collecting taxpayer-funded perks.

Rep. Mike Gerber, D-Montgomery, his caucus' leading campaign strategist, said he was encouraged by the results in Beyer's race, as well as the Republican primary for the Williamsport-area district currently held by freshman Rep. Rick Mirabito, D-Lycoming.

In the Williamsport race, the Republican who Mirabito beat two years ago defeated a more moderate candidate who last held the seat.

Gerber said he also was pleased with the quality of his party's winners in multicandidate races to fill vacancies. Those races will largely determine which party claims the majority come January. Republicans are working to regain majority control of the House, currently held 104-to-99 by the Democrats, with four vacancies (three most recently held by Republicans).

Rep. Dave Reed, R-Indiana, who runs the House Republicans' campaign arm, said DeWeese's win kept that seat in play for Republicans in the general election.

Reed said 2010 is shaping up as a more favorable year for House Republicans than 2008, when Barack Obama led the Democratic ticket.

In about one-third of the 228 legislative seats up for grabs this year, the incumbent has no primary or general election opposition. There are 19 open seats this year in the House and three in the Senate; among the retirees is Senate Minority Leader Bob Mellow, D-Lackawanna, who was first elected to the Senate in 1970. John Blake won a six-way primary for the Democratic nomination for Mellow's seat in which five of the candidates each received between 17 and 22 percent of the vote.

Control of the state Senate, firmly in Republican hands, is not expected to change.