HARRISBURG - A diminutive gray-haired housewife and mother of six from Johnstown could well determine who governs Pennsylvania after next Jan. 18 and even the United States starting Jan. 20, 2001.

The 5-foot tall political dynamo is Marguerite "Peg" Luksik. She is hardline in her opposition to abortion, Outcome Based Education, gun control and pending new federal clean air standards. And she wants to be governor of the commonwealth.

Luksik is more than a renegade gubernatorial wannabe. She has a strong grassroots organization that can raise cash and run a respectable third-party campaign. Luksik also can attract votes. She garnered about 15 percent of the gubernatorial ballots cast in 1994 when she ran against former Lt. Gov. Mark Singel, a Democrat, also of Johnstown, and Republican Tom Ridge, who won.

In 1990 the housewife and mother nearly defeated endorsed Republican Barbara Hafer in the GOP gubernatorial primary election.

Despite her organization and track record. Luksik is apparently being ignored. Political watchers and pundits have focused, instead, on the matchup between Ridge, the Republican incumbent, and Democratic challenger Ivan Itkin of Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill section.

Luksik, however, could prove to be a major factor in this year's gubernatorial election. And her campaign is likely to impact more on Ridge than on Itkin. That's because Ridge is more vulnerable to her "hot button" issues than any liberal or moderate Democrat would be.

Specifically, Luksik will probably attack the incumbent governor's nonstance on abortion. She's also likely to criticize the governor for signing a gun control bill two years ago and to note he may have violated his oath to uphold the commonwealth's constitution, which plainly states a citizen's right to own firearms "shall not be questioned."

Ridge will tout his newly imposed academic standards for public schools and new professional standards for public school teachers.

Expect Luksik, a former teacher, to counter the guy on that issue by claiming the new standards are really Outcome Based Education in a new package.

OBE drew heavy political fire a few years back because it was supposedly aimed at social engineering more than academic achievement.

Luksik indicated last week that Ridge has done little or nothing to prevent the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from imposing tough new clean air standards on Pennsylvania that, she and others claim, are likely to result in economic catastrophe for Greater Pittsburgh.

"We don't have to do the drastic things the (EPA) wants to have clean air," Luksik said one day after the election.

She can't be attacked for lack of administrative experience. That's because Luksik founded and operates "Mom's House," an anti-abortion alternative for unmarried pregnant women. It's a corporate entity with branches in four states. "Being a governor is really about being a boss," she said. "And I know how to administer programs and be a boss."

Luksik can be the gadfly in a three-way race, leaving Ridge or Itkin with virtually no way to counterattack.

She said her organization is stronger than it was four years ago. And she expressed confidence in the ability to raise at least $1 million "to run a respectable campaign."

Even the most radical observers, however, think Luksik, at best, can be a spoiler. And that's where she could determine the political destiny of Pennsylvania and the nation.

Ridge is one of 30 Republican governors most of whom are also hoping for a White House run in two years. Thus, he must win re-election by a huge margin. He must, in fact, crush his opposition if his White House ambitions are to have a chance at becoming a reality.

Count on Itkin getting at least 35 percent of the vote just for being a Democrat at the top of a statewide Pennsylvania election ballot. And if Luksik can garner double-digit support again, Ridge would narrowly win and become a national political also-ran.

That happened in New Jersey last year when Garden State voters barely returned Gov. Christine Todd Whitman to office in a three-way race. As a result, Whitman's chances of being the GOP vice presidential nominee suddenly dissolved.

And that's how a frail housewife and mother from Johnstown, if ignored, could be a slayer of political giants and a determining factor of who governs Pennsylvania and maybe even the nation.