So much money, so little progress. At least that's what a new Rasmussen Reports poll says about Republican Senate candidate's Rich Tarrant's effort to close the gap between him and Independent Bernie Sanders in the contest to replace retiring Senator Jim Jeffords. The Rasmussen poll of 500 likely voters, performed on May 9th and released last week, gave Sanders 67 percent and Tarrant 29 percent. Tarrant's GOP primary rival, Greg Parke, was even further behind Sanders, 73 percent to 19 percent. The lead Sanders has over the two Republican rivals is almost identical to what a WCAX-TV poll conducted a week earlier in May also showed.

Tarrant, a first-time candidate, has dropped $4.35 million of his own money on the race as of Jun15, and the poll shows his wall-to-wall advertising campaign has made him a recognizable name to 85 percent of Vermont. It just hasn't won him a whole lot more support -- not yet, anyway.

Here's another Rasmussen raspberry for the Tarrant camp to munch on. Democrat Scudder Parker hasn't done any TV yet and is hardly a household name, but the poll found he had 31 percent to two-term incumbent Republican Jim Douglas's 54 percent. In other words, Parker is 15 percentage points closer to Douglas than Tarrant is to Sanders. Hmmm.