At least on the surface, U.S. House candidates Martha Rainville and Peter Welch are working from the same playbook as they hurtle toward the end of the campaign. It goes like this:

1. Hold rally of party faithful, at which the candidates give their most rousing speeches and the crowd rises in applause with their best smiles on their faces. If all goes well, the crowd leaves energized and willing to run through a wall for the candidate.

2. Tour Vermont businesses, where a company leader takes the candidate on a tour and in the process, the candidate meets as many ordinary employees as possible for approximately 14 seconds apiece. If all goes well, they go home and tell all their friends that they met a candidate and if all goes really well, they remember that candidate's name. (By the way, the companies would like me to say here that IN NO WAY are the endorsing a candidate by taking them on a tour).

Welch toured Green Mountain Power Corp. in Colchester on Thursday. He passed from cubicle to cubicle, shook a lot of hands, learned that some people did notice him waving out at Severance Corners that morning and some people noticed his signs but not him (note to self: do I really need to be at the honk-and-wave for the honk-and-wave to work?)

With each quick interaction it was hard to tell which employees might vote for him and which would not. Everybody politely shook his hand. In between, perhaps Welch learned a couple things about electric supply and GMP’s corporate style of putting everybody from the CEO on down at an open cubicle.

The next day, Rainville was making the same kind of tour through Seventh Generation, the environmentally friendly maker of cleaning products in Burlington. She’d already toured GMP. Not nearly as many employees at Seventh Generation but an interesting tour nonetheless. Oddly enough, both companies have the same open-cubicle strategy. Seventh Generation’s new digs probably beat just about any company’s for styling, especially the “cafeteria” that is nicer than most dining rooms I've ever seen.

I don’t expect to run for Congress in my lifetime, but I have to say the idea of popping in on a company, taking a tour and seeing how they do business is more interesting than you might think. Especially if you’re not dying for a vote from every person you meet.

Is it the most valuable way for a candidate to spend his or her time in the last days of the election? Perhaps it’s the easiest way to meet a true cross-section of people and get to know Vermont business better.

Anybody got other ideas for how they can make their final mark? If a candidate came to your workplace would you be impressed?

- Terri Hallenbeck