Vermont slugfest

WAITSFIELD, Vt. -- In a state represented by the nation's sole Socialist congressman, the boundaries of politics are presumed to be somewhere to the left of the vast portion of America.

But here in Vermont, the governor's race has seen a great charge to the middle, as the two leading candidates seek to win votes by casting his rival as an unabashed radical.

The Republican Party, on behalf of Governor James Douglas, distributed a 15-year-old news clipping this month that described the Democratic contender, Mayor Peter Clavelle of Burlington, as marching in support of the Sandinistas, the left-wing rebel group that toppled the Nicaraguan government in 1979.

Clavelle has sought to link Douglas and President Bush, speaking of the two in the same sentence whenever possible and portraying their policies as mirrors of one another. Douglas serves as state campaign chairman for Bush, an unpopular figure in Vermont, who took just 41 percent of the vote in 2000.

The Douglas campaign protests Clavelle's efforts to tie its candidate too closely to Bush, highlighting points of divergence between the men, particularly on environmental matters. Clavelle's campaign says Republicans were red-baiting when they dredged up his support of the Sandinistas.

The attacks have taken many by surprise in this state of normally placid politics, where incumbent governors rarely lose office and where, despite Vermont's reputation for wild liberalism, moderates are often favored for the governorship. The two main contenders in this race are hardly firebrands. Both are low-key government technocrats, both more likely to speak about the finer points of storm water permits than to harp on political ideology.

But observers point out that in a year of highly polarized national politics, Vermont is a prime example of the ripples emanating from the battle between Senator John F. Kerry and Bush for the presidency. The national race, observers say, is whipping the governor's race into a fever pitch as cries go out from the Democratic camp that Bush is a conservative bogeyman and Douglas his henchman, a complaint that political observers say could help boost Clavelle with undecided voters.

''It's possible people will see a bigger set of issues at stake and that Democrats will be able to use connections to Bush as a tool to create a kind of carry-down effect on the ticket," said Dean Spiliotes, a political science professor at Saint Anselm College.

Conversations with Vermonters suggest that the national race is weighing on the minds of voters who plan to vote for Kerry, not necessarily out of preference for him, but in opposition to Bush.

''I am not fond of the Republican stances these days and I am really not happy with Bush," said David Worthley, 60, an art director for a renewable energy company in Waitsfield.

Worthley said he is an independent, but is leaning toward Clavelle because of his discomfort with Bush. ''I think we need a change all over."

Greg Hayes, 44, a computer company warehouse manager who lives in Duxbury, said he has nothing bad to say about Douglas and knows little about Clavelle. Nonetheless, he said, ''I am disillusioned and disappointed with Republicans," adding that he is inclined to vote for Clavelle as part of a straight Democratic ticket.

Observers of Vermont politics say that in most years, Clavelle would stand little chance of winning the governor's seat, which Republicans held for more than a century until 1962. No Democrat has toppled a sitting Republican governor since then.

Polls in this race give the edge to the incumbent, Douglas, 53, who casts himself as a moderate. As evidence, his advisers cite Douglas's stand in favor of abortion rights, his move to increase the minimum wage, and his recent authorization of a lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration for the right to import prescription drugs from Canada.

Douglas is a well-known figure in the state, having served eight years as state treasurer before his election as governor in 2002. He succeeded Howard Dean, a Democrat who unsuccessfully sought his party's presidential nomination.

Clavelle, 55, has a challenge to present himself as a political moderate. The seven-term mayor has long been associated with the Progressive Party, which coalesced in the 1980s when newcomers to Burlington felt rebuffed by the local Democratic Party's working-class, conservative roots. The Progressives' left-leaning platform states that wealth should not be concentrated in the hands of a few and that the tax burden should be shared, based on an ability to pay.

Considered a moderate among the Progressives, Clavelle abandoned the party for the Democrats when he decided to run for governor. ''He's on the left," said Eric Davis, a professor of political science at Middlebury College, ''but clearly not radical."

On the campaign trail, Clavelle seeks to portray himself as a liberal pragmatist with a keen concern for business matters. On a tour of companies last week, Clavelle chatted with the owner of a small electronics firm about its warehouse capacity, its employee roster, its health insurance plan. Clavelle's advisers looked on approvingly, until Clavelle tossed out a question that left the owner speechless: ''So what's your social mission?"

The question was the sort of thing that makes the Republicans gleefully certain they will be able to cast Clavelle as a radical leftist.

Clavelle points out that efforts to tag a politician as a radical leftist have backfired in Vermont. He points to the success of US Representative Bernie Sanders, an independent who identifies himself as a socialist and was once Clavelle's supervisor in Burlington.

Last week some Vermonters dismissed the effort to tar Clavelle by publishing accounts of his support of the Sandinistas. ''People change, people evolve," said Glenn Isaac, 54, national accounts manager for an energy company and a resident of South Burlington who voted for Douglas in 2000.

Then there was the take ofDonn Simpson, 44, a woodworker at a power company in Waitsfield. ''I don't hold prejudice against any Communists," he said.

Sarah Schweitzer can be reached at schweitzer@globe.com.