Vt. general reportedly to run for US House

MONTPELIER -- Vermont National Guard Chief Martha Rainville will be a candidate for the US House, two sources close to Rainville have told The Associated Press.

Rainville's political spokesman, Nathan Rice, said yesterday that the general had made a decision but he would not say what that decision was. Rice said Rainville, a Republican, would announce today or tomorrow when she would make her announcement.

But two separate sources, who asked that their names not be used because of Rainville's desire to keep the decision private, told the wire service that Rainville has decided to run. Rainville will make her announcement at a series of stops around the state Monday, the sources said.

Rainville first said she was considering a race for the House last May. Since then she has formed an exploratory committee, hired a campaign staff, and raised more than $100,000, but maintained that she was undecided about whether she would run.

It is expected she will step down as adjutant general, a position she was elected to by the Legislature in 1997, when she became the first woman adjutant general in the country.

Rainville, 47, was born on a naval base in New London, Conn. She moved around the southern United States with her family at the behest of her father's career in the US Navy. Her father retired in Mississippi, and she graduated from the University of Mississippi in 1979, majoring in elementary education and pre-med.

After graduation, Rainville attended officer training school in Texas. She met her husband, Norman, a St. Albans native, when both were in the Air Force.

State Senator Peter Welch, a Democrat, is already in the race for the House. Two other Republicans -- Senator Mark Shepard of Bennington and former Burlington restaurant owner Dennis Morrisseau -- say they will run.

The seat is now held by US Representative Bernie Sanders, an Independent who is running for the US Senate. Sanders has held the state's lone seat in the House since 1991.