ELECTION BATTLE / ABORTION ISSUE FADES : Political Gaffes Plague Bid by GOP Rights Proponent : Pennsylvania party seeks to oust Gov. Casey, who favors limits. But other problems overshadow its candidate’s popular stance.

As a test of their new-found political momentum, abortion-rights advocates once touted the Pennsylvania governor’s race as one of the best--and most unusual--political contests to watch nationwide. But as the May 15 primary approaches, their enthusiasm is fading.

Polls have shown that the unyielding anti-abortion stance of incumbent Democratic Gov. Robert P. Casey was a handicap in his bid for a second term. To capitalize on that soft spot, the Republican State Committee in December endorsed state Auditor Gen. Barbara Hafer for governor, even though her staunch abortion-rights position was at odds with the Republican national platform and the sentiments of many Pennsylvania Republicans.

Since then, however, Hafer’s campaign has been plagued by ineptness, financial improprieties and a propensity for political gaffes. She is still favored to win the GOP primary over an anti-abortion Republican, 34-year-old Marguerite Luksik of Johnstown, but she apparently has made little headway against Casey.

She soured many potential ethnic white Democratic crossover voters with her derisive description of Casey as a “redneck Irishman from Scranton.” She also antagonized many blacks when she said that Casey delayed firing the former state corrections commissioner, who was under fire because of a series of prison riots, because he is black. She also has had to fend off criticisms for wrongly billing the state $8,000 in campaign and personal costs. “There’s no doubt that, so far, Hafer’s campaign has been a major disappointment to those who sought to frame the governor’s race as a referendum on the abortion issue,” said Michael Young, a political science professor at Pennsylvania State University’s Harrisburg campus.

“His (Casey’s) approval rating runs consistently between 70% and 80%,” Young said. “In terms of political fundamentals, he’s also in a very strong position. Taxes have not been raised, his Administration has been corruption free . . . and the state’s economy is in pretty good shape.”

Republican Party leaders, in fact, had a hard time finding a candidate willing to go up against such a popular incumbent.

Hafer, 46, a former public health nurse and county commissioner from the heavily Democratic Pittsburgh area, was tapped, but was no “sacrificial lamb,” GOP party leaders insist. She had proved herself by unseating Democratic Auditor Gen. Don Bailey in her first statewide political race. And she was viewed as having a trump card in her abortion-rights stance.

Independent polls have consistently shown that about 60% of Pennsylvania voters favor legalized abortion. A mid-March survey by Hafer’s campaign found that on a name-only basis, Casey beat her by 60% to 30%. When Casey was labeled as the anti-abortion candidate and Hafer as the abortion-rights candidate, however, she came out ahead, 55% to 45%.

But Hafer’s campaign was so bogged down that the state’s most prominent Republicans--including U.S. Sens. John Heinz and Arlen Specter--recently had to band together in a rally at the state Capitol to give her candidacy a much-needed boost.

“She’s in deep trouble,” said G. Terry Madonna, director of the Center for Politics and Public Affairs at Millersville University of Pennsylvania. “On a scale of 1 to 10, Casey is an 8 and she’s about a 2.”

Even if Hafer manages to resurrect her campaign, Madonna said, it is not clear how much her abortion-rights stance will help her against Casey, despite what polls show. “Voters tend not to be driven by one issue,” he said. “As a result, the polls tend to be misleading if they ask only about the abortion issue and not about others issues of concern to voters, like the economy and taxes.”

Madonna also pointed out that the most restrictive portions of the controversial abortion-control act Casey signed into law last year have been enjoined by a federal judge, making the legislation less of an issue with voters.

Casey, 58, who was elected governor in 1986 on his fourth try for the office, likewise faces a primary challenger, 45-year-old Phil Berg, a suburban Philadelphia attorney. But Berg, who is running as the abortion-rights Democratic candidate, is not expected to take more than 25% of the primary vote.