EST CHESTER, Pa. - Jessie Pincus's son heads the county's Young Republicans, and her husband is a GOP political consultant. She supports the Republican Party ''financially and physically,'' and she listened intently last week as Senator Susan Collins of Maine visited local GOP women and made a peppy pitch for George W. Bush.
Still, Pincus can't decide which presidential candidate to vote for, an admission she fears could get her ''tarred and feathered'' here in heavily Republican Chester County.
''I'm an issues voter, not a party voter,'' said Pincus, a self-employed mental health adviser. ''And I'm still waiting to hear how the presidential candidates are going to relate to my concerns, which are health care, education, and women's issues. I can't wait to see the debates.''
Tonight, watch how Governor George W. Bush of Texas and Vice President Al Gore try to woo Jessie Pincus when they take the stage at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. In a race that's too close to call, undecided voters are the indisputable targets of this first presidential debate, and women make up 65 to 75 percent of undecided voters.
The feminization of politics has been a standard feature of the presidential campaign for months. Bush boasted that ''W Stands for Women'' at the GOP convention, and Gore showcased his family values - capped by the now-famous kiss with his wife, Tipper - at his convention in Los Angeles. Both have reached out to women voters through their stress on the issues (improving education, paying for seniors' prescription drugs) and the interviews they've done (the ''Oprah'' show).
But a random sample of women voters, taken on a sunny autumn afternoon in this pretty, middle-class town not far from Philadelphia, indicates many are still weighing which man has the judgment, character, and understanding of the everyday pressures on working families to be a good president and make a difference for them.
''I want specifics from these candidates,'' said Pincus, 50, who lives in nearby East Goshen and is concerned that managed health care is not serving families with mental health needs. ''Exactly what are you going to do, how are you going to get it done, and how will you do a better job than your opponent?''
Maureen Benton, a clerk in the county courthouse, also worries about health care, because her 22-year-old daughter, a single mother of a 3-year-old boy, has a job but no health insurance. Benton has health insurance, but as a woman who is divorced and 45, she would like to hear more from Bush and Gore about Social Security and whether ''it is going to be there when I get there.''
Janet McNally of Downingtown said she hopes the debates will clarify which candidate has the moral authority to be president. She's afraid that Gore is too tied to special-interest money, but she has also heard that Bush does not have a record of great accomplishment as Texas governor.
''My biggest thing is, `In God We Trust,''' said McNally, an independent who says she votes for the man, not the party label. ''I want a president who will bring morality back to the country and not just worship the almighty dollar. If the candidates have strong values, you don't have to worry about where they stand on the issues.''
Issues matter, too, to the 50-year-old mother of two college-age children. One is health care and health costs (she is a breast-cancer survivor). The other is what McNally perceives as the growing gap between the rich and middle class (McNally says she works one full-time and two part-time jobs).
''I'll be looking to see how the candidates can help people who are less fortunate,'' McNally said.
Lynn DePorter, a customer-service officer at the First National Bank in West Chester, says she hears many hard-luck stories - for example, the elderly woman who can't afford to buy both groceries and medicine in the same week - and is pretty sure that Gore will do more than Bush to make prescription drugs affordable.
Annesia Mashman, 32, has little confidence that either candidate can do much about her issues: the overtime pay her husband earns to help make ends meet, which gets eaten up by taxes; the teachers who can't do more than ''throw the kids through school''; the treadmill of working full time, running her two sons to sports, making dinner, helping with homework, and getting her boys to bed.
''We're trying our hardest, but we're middle class and struggling,'' said Mashman, who lives in Honey Brook and expects to be too busy to watch the debate. ''Besides, I don't feel there is much the candidates can do to help. They say they will, but they won't.''
The presidential candidates have made Pennsylvania, with its 23 electoral votes, a key battleground. That - plus the number of undecided women voters in a county that is supposed to be solidly Republican - is why the Bush campaign deployed Senator Collins to West Chester to rally the troops and urge women not to trust Gore.
''We can believe George Bush; we can count on his word to mean something,'' Collins told about 40 women who met in a West Chester restaurant. ''Every day, Al Gore stretches the truth. I am expecting any day to hear him claim that Susan B. Anthony was his great-great-grandmother, to wrap up the women's vote.''
Sandra Burkett Nicka, who lives in West Grove and writes children's books, listened attentively but said she still hadn't made up her mind. One day she's for Gore (her mother called from California to say he'd protect the environment), the next day it's Bush (she thinks he's funny); some days it's Ralph Nader (he's been around a long time).
''If I had to go out to dinner with one of them, I'd chose Bush,'' said Nicka, who is married and has a 12-year-old son. ''But it's not a popularity contest; I'm not electing a date.
''But here's what goes through my mind. Let's say a meteorite was coming toward Earth. Who has the better judgment?
''Who has the experience, the intelligence, and the decision-making capability to weigh the options and do the right thing?'' she asked.
''I wish I could decide.''
