ASHINGTON - Voters say the issues they most want to hear discussed during the 2000 presidential campaign are health insurance, the proper use of US troops, and the future of Social Security and Medicare, a new poll said yesterday.
The absence of one dominant issue gives the personal qualities of the candidates increased importance in the 2000 presidential campaign, the poll suggests.
That appears to have hampered Vice President Al Gore in head-to-head matchups with GOP front-runner George W. Bush. The Texas governor had been running 11 to 15 points ahead of the vice president. Gore narrowed that gap to 7 points, 51-44, in the poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.
The vice president benefits from increased support from women; 50 percent of the women surveyed said they would vote for Gore today compared with 40 percent in September, while 45 percent of women in the poll said they back Bush. Support for Gore remains unchanged among men at 37 percent.
Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center, noted ''how steady the Bush lead is among men and how variable it is among women.''
''Women seem to be less focused on Gore's personal shortcomings,'' Kohut said, ''but men seem more focused on his personal qualities as negatives.''
Of those who opposed Gore, about half cited his close ties to President Clinton as a reason for not supporting him, while more than a third said it was his personality and leadership abilities.
The poll of 1,032 adults was taken Oct. 7-11 and has an error margin of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points, plus or minus 4 percent for registered voters, and slightly larger for subgroups such as Democratic or Republican primary voters.
Bush and Gore had substantial leads in the race for their parties' nominations in the poll.
Of those surveyed, discussion of how the poor and uninsured can get health insurance attracted the most concern, with 62 percent showing a high level of interest in the issue. Those most inclined to say they wanted to hear about health insurance were female, black, and had incomes under $30,000.
Almost a fourth of those surveyed said they have closely followed proposals by presidential candidates to expand health coverage for the poor, while 17 percent said they follow campaign news in general.
A majority in the poll, 56 percent, said they are very interested in hearing about whether US troops should be sent into countries to stop the killing of innocent civilians in a civil war. Those most likely to want to hear more about those issues were men and those with some college education. Half of those polled said their top priority for campaign discussion was keeping Medicare financially sound, and 46 percent said they wanted to hear discussion of investing Social Security funds in the stock market.
