Gov. Tom Corbett and Rep. Allyson Schwartz have opposing views on birth control. | AP Photos Next 'war on women' front: Pa. race?

Pennsylvania Republican Gov. Tom Corbett once said women who didn’t want to view images of a fetus they were seeking to abort could simply close their eyes. His potential 2014 opponent, Democratic Rep. Allyson Schwartz, worked for a family planning clinic for more than a dozen years.

The “war on women” may be headed to Pennsylvania.


No other gubernatorial race in the country could provide a clearer test of the staying power of one of 2012’s fiercest messaging duels. President Barack Obama and Democrats portrayed Republicans as anti-women throwbacks who would defund Planned Parenthood and deprive women of equal pay; Republicans countered that it was all a clever distraction from Democrats’ stewardship of a lousy economy.

( PHOTOS: 18 'wars' on [fill in the blank])

Schwartz, a 64-year-old native New Yorker and five-term congresswoman, would represent a patchwork of identity politics: She would become the state’s first female governor and third Jewish governor. She is a prolific fundraiser and a veteran of the state’s political scene.

But she would symbolize something more: as a former women’s health center administrator, she is already the target of attacks in the conservative blogosphere for “running an abortion clinic.” At the same time, Corbett — one of the Republicans’ weakest incumbents in public polls — has been under sustained fire from the left over a remark supporting the idea of forcing women to have an ultrasound before an abortion.

( Also on POLITICO: Corbett may be near Medicaid switch)

The race would not only measure the lingering effect of what Democrats dubbed the “war on women” during Obama’s reelection effort, but it would be among the most ideologically polarized the state has seen in years. Republicans accused the Obama campaign of repeatedly invoking social issues as a wedge for women’s support, yet could never find a way to sell either the policies or their messaging.

“There’s enough intersection of history here and uniqueness to make this a very interesting governor’s race,” said Alan Novak, a former Pennsylvania GOP chairman during Tom Ridge’s era as governor.

Schwartz, for her part, is not casting the race in such terms. A member of the New Democrat Coalition, a group of self-styled moderate House members, her message is about the economy, and not the social issues that dominated much of the public debate in the 2012 race.

( WATCH: Allyson Schwartz on potential gov. run)

The focus of her campaign — she has not officially announced her candidacy but has given every indication she will — would be on how to “grow the economy and create jobs,” Schwartz said in an interview with POLITICO. She points to the growing biotech sector and the potential for natural gas exploration in the state, not to social issues.

“For me, this race is about economic growth,” she said.

Still, Schwartz added, “Gov. Corbett has chosen to say some pretty harsh things about women. …[and] that’s not been a winning message for Republicans.”

There’s also no guarantee that Schwartz will be the nominee for the Democrats — there is a field of potential hopefuls, chief among them state Treasurer Rob McCord, who polls well against Corbett. (Privately, some senior Democrats concede Schwartz may not clear the primary field as easily as her backers believe.)

“It’s way too early to tell,” said former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, who also praised Schwartz’s abilities as a candidate. “It’s anybody’s ballgame.”

And yet attention is increasingly focusing on Schwartz, who is somewhat known statewide — she ran a failed bid for U.S. Senate 2000 — and who sees herself as a specific kind of candidate.

“The uniqueness of what I bring … [is] a depth of experience at both the state level” and federal level, said Schwartz, who speaks in measured sentences, rarely deviating from her message.

Prior to her time as a congresswoman, Schwartz served in the state Senate. An ally of Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel, she was the first House member to say that disgraced Rep. Anthony Weiner needed to resign after he sent lewd pictures on Twitter.

The wife of a doctor who helped create the children’s health insurance program known as CHIP, Schwartz prides herself on having a curriculum vitae outside the bounds of permanent government.

Yet Democrats are aware that her work at the Elizabeth Blackwell Health Center, a clinic run by Planned Parenthood where Schwartz worked for 14 years, would very likely come under attack. And despite her centrism on fiscal issues — a necessity in purple-state Pennsylvania — social issues are bound to come into play in a Schwartz-Corbett contest.

Schwartz said the debate that raged during the 2012 presidential race over defunding Planned Parenthood remains relevant. “The response from women across the spectrum, even those uncertain of how they feel about abortion, [was] … ‘Don’t take away family planning,’” she said.

On the flip side, Democrats see Corbett as vulnerable with women voters, following comments he made last year in support of a bill proposed in Pennsylvania to require women to have an ultrasound before an abortion. To avoid seeing images of the fetus, the governor responded to a question during a news conference, women can “close your eyes.”

Battles over other ultrasound bill proposals damaged other Republicans and the party broadly in 2012, polls show. Democrats believe that should Schwartz be the candidate, attacks on her record will backfire.

“I think the more they attack her on these kinds of things, the worst they’re going to do,” said Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the group’s political arm.

Stephanie Schriock, president of EMILY’S List, which recruits female candidates for all levels of campaigns, agreed.

“I think Tom Corbett will be the one [bringing up] social issues” as a campaign wedge, she told POLITICO.

For groups like EMILY’s List, Schwartz as a nominee represents a particularly strong option. In 2012, despite a number of key victories by statewide women candidates, the only gubernatorial pickup was in New Hampshire, by Gov. Maggie Hassan.

Yet Republicans also see a potential bright spot in the divide that a Schwartz-Corbett matchup could represent.

“Allyson Schwartz is antithetical to our ideal candidate,” said Penny Nance, of the conservative group Concerned Women for America. “She is directly linked to abortion via her work with a Planned Parenthood clinic … as much as we joyously celebrate electing pro-life women, our feelings about defeating candidates like Allyson Schwartz come a close second because we see them as traitors to women.”

“It really draws a clear contrast, and perhaps may be what he needs in terms of a real ideological type of election that engages the [more conservative] center part of the state and the western part of the state,” Novak said.

Such a contrast would also be a test of where Republican messaging stands after the 2012 drubbing.

Democrats claim that private polling shows Schwartz beating Corbett. A recent public poll by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling showed Corbett leading her by 7 points. He led all eight potential challengers in that poll.

But the survey also captured Corbett’s own problems more broadly — his disapproval number is at 52 percent, and his approval is below 40 percent. It makes him one of the GOP’s most embattled governors heading into 2014.

Much of that is owed to the fallout from the Penn State sex abuse scandal. Corbett was state attorney general when child-abuse complaints against assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky reached his office.

Critics have accused Corbett of failing to act quickly, and the current state attorney general appointed an investigator last month to examine Corbett’s role. The governor has pledged his cooperation and said the probe will show he acted properly.

But the issue has put Corbett on the defensive.

“It was a pretty strong reaction from people across the state about how he handled that and I believe that there’s a level of distrust about Corbett that is hard to overcome,” Schwartz said.

In the meantime, it remains to be seen whether the messaging around a Schwartz campaign will be different than what played out in the previous cycle. But Nance hinted the right needs to change its approach.

“I think the Democrats found a clever and effective political theme and they will continue to use it until the Republicans find a thoughtful and articulate way to answer it,” Nance said. “Hope springs eternal but Republicans seem to have learned the wrong lessons. Instead of making an articulate case for life and conservative values, the establishment seems to be crouching in defense. Time will tell.”