Marci Mustello took it in stride when the county Republican chairman accidentally announced her sister's name as their party's nominee for the 11th Legislative District after a special committee vote March 27.

“It's a testament to us and our character,” Mustello said. “We love people, we love being around people. People know us. Everybody calls me Michele every where I go.”

Mustello, 48, of Butler Township spent most of the last two decades working for Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives, after getting her start in politics volunteering for her sister's campaign.

She ran against and lost to former state Rep. Brian Ellis in the 2004 primary race for the House of Representatives seat. She earned 2,145 votes, while Ellis got 3,015.

When Ellis resigned and the seat reopened in March, Mustello needed to win an appointment from 31 Republican committee members, including herself, to earn her party's nomination.

Mustello lives right down the street from her childhood home. She graduated from Butler High School in 1988 and spent the following year in Germany, leaving just months before the Berlin Wall fell. She describes it as a foundational experience.

“I witnessed communism first-hand,” Mustello said. “It was a very eye-opening experience.”

Like her opponent, Mustello attended college but didn't graduate. Mustello says she was drawn out of school in favor of real world work.

“I was like, why do I need college?” Mustello said. “I'm learning a lot outside these ivory tower walls.”

Instead, she worked in her father's insurance business until the 1990s, when politics starting growing as a presence in her life.

She got her first taste of the campaign trail and elections in 1991, when her sister Michele ran for Butler County Recorder of Deeds. Marci kept working with campaigns until landing a job as an aide to U.S. Rep. Phil English in 1997.

Marci and Michele stepped into local politics together. Their other sister, Mary Jo Mustello Losch, was never interested and called herself “apolitical.”

“It's not for me,” Mary Jo said.

Mary Jo thinks her sister Marci earned her spot, though, through years of doing everyday work on behalf of politicians.

“Her customer service is by far the best of anybody,” Mary Jo said. “She cares about the people and finding the right resources to direct people to.”

Customer service is largely what Marci said she did for English and, later on, for U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly.

Mustello emphasizes those experiences, but offers few policy details. Property tax reform was her campaign centerpiece in 2004, and she's emphasizing it again today.

“There's got to be a way to allow people to stay in the houses that they built,” she said, but did not specify whether that means lowering taxes or creating tax allowances for such individuals.

Mustello also didn't take a definitive stance on whether the state House, which she's aiming to join, ought to be reduced in size from its 203 members. She said she wouldn't support a reduction that resulted in fewer representatives from the Butler area.

Mustello identified one area where she hopes to do better than Ellis. It's a problem she identified during her work at Kelly's office while facilitating letters of support for grant applications for federal or state programs being filed through state representatives' offices.

She noticed a discrepancy in filings from Ellis' district and hopes more grant money will flow to Butler if it's solved.

“I didn't get very many requests for some of these grant opportunities from this district,” Mustello said.

Mustello feels her life experiences would help her represent the region.

English lost his 2007 reelection campaign and Marci lost her job. She called it a low-point. She soon found work as executive director of the Butler County Humane Society, an experience she called the “best two years of my life.”

She eventually returned to politics when her friend, Kelly, won office in 2010.

Mustello is on leave from her job as Kelly's calendar manager. She often represented him when he was unable to attend Butler area events.

The U.S. representative's endorsement of Mustello follows the same logic as her own candidacy pitch.

“I know Marci as well as I know my children,” Kelly said. “It's not her first day at the rodeo. She knows how things work.”