Down in the polls and struggling to close a gender gap that has long dogged Republican candidates, party leaders in Pennsylvania yesterday kicked off a drive to bring women into the McCain-Palin camp.

At the top of the speaking list was a woman who described herself as the longtime, sole member of "the pregnant governors club," former Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift, mother of twins and a woman determined to turn things around in Pennsylvania for John McCain and running mate Sarah Palin.

"Pennsylvania is just so critical for our nation," Ms. Swift told a group of volunteers at Republican Headquarters in Green Tree.

Women - notably in the four traditionally Republican counties outside Philadelphia - began to abandon the party, largely because of disagreement with its longstanding platform opposing legalized abortion.

Yesterday, Ms. Swift, who describes herself as a pro-choice Republican, said she believed the party's efforts to reach beyond the abortion issue could draw women back into the fold.

"Sen. McCain has an economic policy that is very focused on small businesses. And as many women know and I think many economists will attest, small businesses are largely growing and thriving because they are started by women," Ms. Swift said.

She said Democratic nominee Barack Obama's plan to raise taxes on annual incomes over $250,000 overlooks the fact that many women running small businesses file only personal income tax returns.

A secondary issue, she added, is likely to be national security.

"Women instinctively understand that if we are not safe and in a free society, all the other aspirations we have for our children become meaningless," she said.

Whether that message reaches Pennsylvania's women voters could well turn on drawing back people such as Mary D. Birks, a lifelong Republican from Mt. Lebanon.

She was attending a debate-watching party Friday night sponsored by the Obama campaign. She had not gone to cheer on Mr. McCain.

"I decided when he chose Palin," she said of Mr. McCain's selection of the staunchly conservative Alaska governor. "I'm going with Obama."

Ms. Birks said she was drawn by Mr. Obama's policies on education and support for the middle class.

"We have a strong upper class and we have a growing lower class and we're shrinking - our middle class is shrinking," Ms. Birks said.

Her replacement could come from the ranks of former Hillary Clinton voters - women such as Jeamour Matthews, a Braddock Democrat who was leaving headquarters yesterday with a "Women for McCain" yard sign.

"I have to vote for the man who supports women, and McCain is the man," she said, asserting that her group, Democracy in Suffrage, believes Mr. Obama underpays women on his senate staff.

Had the Democrats nominated Mrs. Clinton, she said, that McCain sign wouldn't be in her hand.

"Oh, without a doubt. Hillary Clinton is our modern-day Eleanor Roosevelt," Ms. Matthews said.

The abortion issue aside, she said her group also accepts Mr. McCain's stands on national security and the fact that Mrs. Palin has a son serving in Iraq.

"There's more things than just my reproductive issues," she said.