After several misconnections Friday and over the weekend, Peter Welch dialed the phone and reached Martha Rainville on Monday. Congressional candidate to congressional candidate, they spoke.

That doesn't mean they came any closer to agreeing about whether he would accept her offer to limit spending to $1 million each or she should accept his offer of holding four Sunday forums. Reports from each campaign indicate that Welch reiterated his concerns that the candidates could not control outside forces when it came to spending. Rainville repeated her response that if they make their intentions to limit spending clear to potential outside supporting organizations, they should be fine, and that the reward outweigh the risks. It doesn't sound like either side had a revelation that the other was right all along.

Same goes for the forums. Rainville didn't come out and say no to Welch, but indicated she prefers to concentrate on her primary race with Mark Shepard and Dennis Morrisseau. Rainville would rather spend the time campaigning on her own, talking directly to Vermonters, spokesman Brendan McKenna said.

The cordial conversation didn't exactly end with an explicit game plan. Which leaves both candidates the option of saying throughout the campaign that the other didn't agree to their suggestions.

_ TH