How early was Martha Rainville thinking about stepping down as adjutant general of the Vermont National Guard and possibly running for political office?

The conventional wisdom is that it was sometime last year, either before or after Senator James Jeffords announced he would not seek re-election in 2006.

Now comes informaton that suggests that she was toying with the idea of elective office a lot earlier than that, like two years earlier.

The evidence? Her own remarks to the Free Press Editorial Board on Tuesday and the fact that she registered the martharainville.com domain name on the Internet on July 21, 2003, about 20 months before Jeffords' retirement announcement caused an earthquake on Vermont's political landscape. Martharainville.com is now the Web site for her GOP House campaign.

Rainville, talking with the Freeps editorial board, acknowledged she always thought she'd pursue a career in "public service" after her days were done as adjutant general, but didn't know when that might happen, or what form it would take.

Asked after the meeting by yours truly about her motives behind creating martharainville.com of the Vermont National Guard, she explained she took the step on the advice of her son, who told her about how some people make it their business to buy up Web sites named after prominent people and then sell the site back to the person at an exorbitant price later on.

"I knew I wouldn't be adjutant general forever," she told me. "I thought I might run for office some time, or go on the lecture circuit, and I knew I wanted my name protected."

She insisted she wasn't thinking about a particular elective office in 2003 when she plunked down the $25 to establish martharainville.com, which would remain dormant until her exploratory committee took form last year.

Vermont Democratic Party staffers, who were the ones who first stumbled on the info that the origins of her Web site pre-date her entry into politics by two years, told me they're uncomfortable with her explanation, particularly the timing of when martharainville.com was created.

"At a time our soldiers were fighting for our country in Iraq and risking their lives, the fact that Martha Rainville was contemplating her future political career was a disservice," said Andy Bouska, a staffer for the Ds.

--Sam Hemingway