Two months ago, veteran incumbent Babette Josephs, who represents Center City in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, dismissed her 23-year-old Democratic challenger, Andrew Hohns. “It’s good to see young people interested in politics,” she said. “[But] people aren’t that interested [in the race].”

These days, with Hohns having mounted a serious challenge, raising more than $60,000 and taking to the tube with ads, Josephs' evaluation of her opponent has changed from feigned nonchalance to scorn.

"I am happy to see young people in politics but this person has been registered to vote in the district for six months. He doesn't know the district. He doesn't know the issues. He doesn't know the players and he's going to do miserably," Josephs says.

Hohns calls the criticism unwarranted and misleading. Hohns grew up in the district and only left to attend the University of Pennsylvania, a few blocks to the west. But growing up in a Rittenhouse Square high-rise in the heart of the district shouldn't count, says Josephs, since Hohns was too young to vote. "We don't elect children," she says.

But if the 61-year-old Josephs is playing the age card, so is Hohns. Sometimes subtly, as when he asks voters to compare his website, andrewhohns.com, which features a downloadable commercial and an animated "e-card" to Josephs', the low-tech babette.org. Sometimes it's more overt, as when he calls Josephs part of a failed generation of political leaders who have left Philadelphia and Pennsylvania worse off than when they took office.

And Hohns feels his inexperience in politics can be an asset in a city with a notorious Democratic machine. At a candidates forum in Bella Vista (the 182nd District includes Center City West, Washington Square West, parts of Grays Ferry and Bella Vista), Hohns received thunderous applause when he told the audience that he was the only candidate running who had never given campaign money to ward boss and ex-con Buddy Cianfrani. If this line gets applause on Cianfrani's home South Philly turf, it must get a standing ovation in Rittenhouse Square.

Ordinarily a 17-year incumbent like Josephs would stay above the fray, but Hohns has proven to be a challenger too serious and too well-funded to ignore. By aligning himself with the Center City business community -- hardly a stretch for the Wharton-schooled investment banker -- Hohns has managed to tap into some big money. With over $60,000 raised, Hohns has run commercials on cable TV. Josephs says she will not run ads. Hohn's largest check, $15,000, came from his own boss, investor Daniel Cohen. Center City merchants have also contributed. The owner of La Colombe, coffee-roaster to the stars, donated $4,000.

In the TV spot, Hohns tells an elderly couple, "Our current representative hasn't written a bill that's become law in over a decade." The commercial ends with the slogan: "He won't just take positions; he will take action." Josephs counters that Hohns is trying to paint her as a do-nothing legislator when she is in fact "articulate, hard-working, effective [and] responsive."

As a liberal Democrat in the statehouse, Josephs sees herself as a gadfly, willing to call her colleagues on their knee-jerk conservatism. For example, when, in the wake of Sept. 11, the legislature took up a measure to require public school children to recite a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance each day, Josephs was the sole "no" vote.

But being the conscience of the legislature doesn't mean she can't get things done. Josephs says that she's effectively used the legislative process to enact parts of her agenda despite the hostile Republican leadership. "Pennsylvanians now have a statutory right to use any contraceptive device or medicine that's available because of one of my amendments to [an] anti-abortion bill," Josephs says. When the bill passed, without Josephs' vote, her amendment became law. Did the bill have her name on it? No. But did she write an important piece of state law? Absolutely.

Hohns shares many of Josephs' views on social issues but says he would focus on economics if elected, working with the Republicans to build a business climate that will benefit the commonwealth in general and its largest city in particular. For example, Hohns says he too would have voted against the mandatory school prayer/Pledge of Allegiance bill but would have explained in a speech that he understood his colleagues' appeal to patriotism after the attacks.

Since no polls have been conducted by either campaign, no one's sure exactly where the race stands. Turnout is expected to be higher than usual in the district as Center City residents push hard for Ed Rendell. Both candidates are wrapping themselves in the Rendell banner, putting up "Josephs-Rendell" and "Hohns-Rendell" posters.

Dan Fee of the Rendell campaign says, "Our policy is that people can always run with us but that doesn't mean we're running with them." Fee says Rendell is "neutral" in the Josephs-Hohns race as he is in all contested statehouse races.