We did a story earlier this week on how the Democrats and Republicans are gearing up for all-out election warfare, with larger-than-ever offices, staffs and phone bills. Much of the flurry comes because Vermont is in the extremely rare situation of having no incumbent for either the U.S. House or U.S. Senate seats that are up for vote this year and these are seats that the national parties are keenly interested in. Keen interest translates into cash, and the local Dems and GOP have each received more than $50,000 from national party groups.

The Vermont Progressive Party is not taking part in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate fray, but the party has more candidates than ever for state races - 18 for state House, one for auditor and one for lieutenant governor - and that is translating into more campaign staff.

The party has hired a new full-timer to help coordinate the House campaigns and expects to hire campaign managers for auditor candidate Martha Abbott and lt. gov. candidate Marvin Malek. It will be the first time the party has had four staffers working on elections, party Director Marrisa Caldwell said.

Candidates, she said, will still be hitting the streets themselves, but the staff will take care of some of the administrative work. The party is offering to design candidates' literature, for example.

Progressive candidates also Wednesday said they will hold to the state's 1997 campaign finance law, even though the U.S. Supreme Court tossed much of the law out. That means state House candidates will accept no more than $200 per contributor, Abbott and Malek will accept no more than $400 per person.

"Campaigns should be done over spaghetti dinners and around people's kitchen tables, not through 30-second television ads," Progressive Rep. David Zuckerman of Burlington said.

- Terri Hallenbeck