Anthony Pollina is having a lengthy political discussion with a highway worker from Bethel, and campaign manager Chris Pearson is getting antsy.

The Progressive Party's candidate for lieutenant governor has found a kindred spirit here at the annual meeting of the Vermont League of Cities and Towns at the Killington Resort. That's what worries Pearson.

"It's energizing to talk with people who agree with you," Pearson says. "I used to have to get behind who he was talking to and make hand signals- AVP: Already Voting Pollina."

Pollina eventually wraps it up and looks for new converts, moving among the booths where vendors are hawking everything from snowplows to software and attendees are enjoying pie and ice cream after lunch. He introduces himself to Jeff Barcelow, a lister from Royalton.

Barcelow says another politician he doesn't know - it turns out to be the Democrat in the race, Sen. Peter Shumlin of Windham County - has already worked the event. Barcelow's big issue is Act 60, the state���s education financing law, and he wants changes.

Pollina doesn't have a detailed plan but says he wants to move away from the property tax to fund education and suggests a good first step would be to roll back some of the state's other tax cuts and use some of money to fund education. He moves on to plug a single-payer health care system.

Barcelow, who says he's a Republican, says afterward he was impressed with Pollina's frankness, though he's not sure that will translate into a vote.

"At least he was honest," he says. "He didn't have all the answers, but he said there are things that needed to be done"

Not the "spoiler"

Pollina's second run for statewide office in two years is in some ways similar to and in some ways different from his last one, when he ran against Democratic Gov. Howard Dean and Republican Ruth Dwyer in 2000 for governor.

The 50-year-old Middlesex activist is still the Progressive Party's leading standard-bearer, although he's shooting for the number two office now.

Once again, he's in a three-way race - this time with Shum-lin and Republican Brian Dubie - and once again, his Demo-cratic rival is calling him a spoiler who'll split the vote of the political left and give the office to the Republican.

Some observers say that was the reason Pollina got only about 10 percent of the vote in 2000, still enough to boost the Progressive Party to major party status.

This time Pollina's poll numbers put him in a dead heat with his rivals. That has translated into an increased confidence that is palpable as he campaigns around the state on this overcast day.

"People clearly know who I am," he says. "I don't necessarily have to be wearing a Pollina button when I walk into a room."

Another thing that has changed is the coverage of his campaign. When he was running for governor, Pollina regularly got the media's ear. Now he has to fight for it.

"Getting attention in a campaign is always challenging," he says. "And when you're running in a lower-tier race, it's harder."

Pollina says the campaign feels different from 2000, not only because his poll numbers are better and because he's picking up key endorsements like the AFL-CIO's and the Sierra Club.

He also says the spoiler charge isn't the factor it was.

"It doesn't appear to stick," Pol-lina says. "Voters brought it up to me often two years ago. Voters almost never bring it up to me this campaign."

"I make it clear to people that in fact this race is a dead heat. Given that fact ... I believe we're winning, because I believe we're going to get more votes than the polls show," Pollina says. "You cannot be a spoiler if you are in fact the candidate who gets the most votes."

"That certainly gives you a feeling that this is a different race," he says.

The finance flap

But being a more credible candidate carries downsides, too. The more intense scrutiny of the media - and political opponents - can be unwelcome, a lesson Pollina learned this spring.

Shortly after he declared his candidacy, the Democratic Party came after him with charges he'd violated the campaign finance reform law he helped write as a lobbyist for the Vermont Public Interest Research Group.

Democrats alleged that a poll done by the Progressive Party amounted to a campaign contribution to Pollina and disqualified him for public funding for his campaign. In 2000 he used nearly $300,000 in public money.

Pollina responded to the charges with a federal lawsuit seeking to block an investigation by state officials and overturn parts of the law, a move that drew public criticism even from VPIRG.

He withdrew the legal challenge and is now running a campaign financed largely by small donors. But he believes his success in 2000 was a factor in motivating the Democratic Party to seek his disqualification from public financing.

"Part of what's going on is that we have an excellent opportunity to elect somebody lieutenant governor who's not a Democrat or Republican," Pollina says. "That's going to be a very significant achievement which has the opportunity to change the future of politics in Vermont. I think both major parties realize the stakes are high."

On the road

The day gets under way at around 10 a.m. when Pollina ar-rives at his office, a couple of tiny rooms adjacent to the Progressive Party's offices in Montpelier. The doors are open between them, and it's hard to tell where one begins and the other ends.

The synergy of the two organizations doesn't end there. The party's director, Chris Pearson, has taken a leave of absence to manage Pollina's campaign.

Some brief housekeeping duties are disposed of, then it's off to the first event of the day, a press conference in Montpelier to announce the recent endorsement of the AFL-CIO's Vermont chapter.

Unfortunately, the endorsement has been reported already and is two weeks old. That means there isn't any press to confer with Pollina and AFL-CIO head Ron Pickering.

Pollina and Pickering give quick presentations anyway before they pack up. They chat about union issues as they walk out.

Next stop is a meeting of Friends of Recovery, a group that works with those battling drug and alcohol abuse. Pollina chats with Friends of Recovery director, Sarah Munroe, about legislative initiatives to fund treatment, including a proposed increase in the beer tax that was killed.

"They (beverage distributor lobbyists) were there faster than a speeding bullet," Munroe says. Pollina, who touts his independence and declines to take corporate donations, pledges he'll work to increase funding for substance abuse, and repeats one of the stock lines he uses frequently.

"The state spends 12 percent of its budget responding to substance abuse, but less than 1 percent on prevention," he says.

After briefly working the room, Pollina heads out and stops at a coffee shop, where he also picks up a sandwich before meeting Pearson to go on the road, their ultimate goal a debate in Bellows Falls tonight.

They hop in Pollina's 1997 Saturn station wagon, purchased a few months ago because his 17-year-old daughter Maya got her license and appropriated one of the family vehicles as her own. The campaign has already logged nearly 11,000 miles on it, and Pearson aims the car south toward Killington.

"The salesperson was a former Johnson State College student," Pollina recalls, who immediately recognized one of the school's most famous alumni. "She came out and said, 'Oh, Anthony Pollina, it's so great to meet you.' Vote Progressive."

Progressive standard

That kind of recognition is the culmination of some 18 years in the political arena. Pollina grew up in Glen Rock, N.J., and moved to Vermont in the mid-1970s to attend Johnson State. He graduated in 1977 after majoring in environmental science and political science.

He came to Montpelier and spent time working as a radio journalist covering the State House. He was also a dishwasher, an activist and grant writer, a public information coordinator in the Vermont Secretary of State's office and a teacher at an alternative high school.

Pollina, who had been part of an informal circle of progressive activists, ran unsuccessfully as a liberal "Rainbow Coalition" Dem-ocrat against GOP incumbent Rep. James Jeffords in 1984, the same year he married Deborah Wolf. The couple lives in Middlesex with daughters Maya and Alessandra, 13.

It was during that campaign that he became concerned about the plight of small farmers, a concern that led him to found what eventually became Rural Ver-mont, an advocacy group modeled after VPIRG and devoted to helping family farms.

By 1990, Pollina was ready to move back into the political realm, this time working for newly elected Rep. Bernard Sanders, an independent who is largely credited with founding the Progressive movement in Vermont.

Pollina spent five years working in Sanders' office as an agriculture and environmental policy analyst before returning to VPIRG in 1995. Over the next five years he served in a variety of roles, including a stint at the helm of the group.

His lobbying efforts included successful passage of the 1997 campaign finance reform law and making lowering prescription drug prices a key political issue.

Part of his stock speech is now reminding people that lowering drug prices - an issue Shumlin likes to trumpet as his own - was a priority he helped put on the political radar screen.

Pollina is currently the head of his own advocacy group, the Vermont Democracy Fund, which works on health care, environmental and economic issues.

In the car

On the road, Pollina and Pear-son are an easygoing team. They chat about last night's episode of "The West Wing," - one of the few programs Pollina can watch without cable - and make calls on their cell phones.

Pollina's wife calls with bad news: The weather forecast for Saturday, when a health care rally is scheduled at the State House, is for rain. Pollina calls the organizer to remind her to reserve the House chambers as a back-up.

Pearson has learned a few things campaigning with Pollina and Sanders.

While attracting media attention has been tougher, Pollina has benefited from several campaign jaunts with Sanders, who has officially endorsed him.

"So while the campaign hasn't been getting the media attention we'd like, I feel like I've been able to speak to more Vermonters directly," Pollina says.

Heading south

After the VLCT meeting, the pair climbs into the car to head farther south.

They plot a course for Brattleboro, planning to hit small towns - and their general stores - on the way. Over the next hour, stops include Stoddard's in Ludlow, where Pollina gets permission to tack up a flier, and BA Pitts a little farther down the road, where the candidate chats up the woman behind the counter and is allowed to leave literature.

At Lisai's Market in Bellows Falls, his luck runs out. The owner won't allow political advertising.

Rain begins to pelt down as they head to Brattleboro, meaning there won't be people on the street to meet. There's another concern, too.

"I don't want to be seen as the candidate who didn't know enough to come out of the rain," Pollina says.

The end up at WTSA radio in Brattleboro for an interview, where Pollina pushes his economic development plan.

Eating soup later at a Brattleboro cafe, the two talk about strategy for tonight's debate. Pearson expects Shumlin to play the spoiler card.

"I'm ready for it," Pollina says. They focus more on responding to Shumlin, because Dubie tends to simply state his position while Shumlin "seems more eager to engage" - a euphemism for attack.

The debate

At the downtown theater, Pear-son gives his candidate a quick pep talk as Pollina checks his notes on index cards.

"You want to add this to your notes? You're a winner," he tells Pollina.

Inside, the organizers tell Pearson he can't bring lawn signs into the theater but can put campaign literature on a counter in the lobby. Pearson stacks the signs against a wall inside the door.

Moments later Shumlin arrives. Told he can't bring his lawn sign inside, he adroitly leans it against the wall, covering Pollina's signs before heading into the theater.

Pearson notices. "Can't we at least share the space, Peter?" he asks. Shumlin doesn't answer as he continues inside and Pearson walks over and moves Shumlin's sign to the side.

The debate is a spirited one, though Shumlin clearly enjoys a home-field advantage, particularly when the candidates are asked what they've done for the area.

When the questions turn to what should happen if none of the candidates gets more than 50 percent of the votes and the Legislature must vote to decide the race, Pollina says the candidate who gets the most votes should win.

He favors instant runoff voting, which would let voters rank their second and third choices, noting that a "three-party state" is now a reality, and that voters should be free to vote for the person they want without worrying about the "spoiler" effect.

"We've got the momentum it takes to win the most votes," Pollina tells the crowd. "Can we win 50 percent? I don't know."

The anticipated attacks from Shumlin never materialize; instead he goes after Dubie on issues ranging from his flip-flop on the issue of pushing the Legislature to elect the candidate with the most votes to his support for parental notification of the parents of minors seeking an abortion.

Pollina, an abortion rights supporter who opposes parental notification, is pleased with his performance on the ride home.

The journey is briefly interrupted when a state trooper stops Pearson on Interstate 89 and gives him a warning about his speed. It's nearly 11 p.m. before they reach Montpelier.

"At the end of every day I go home and I feel good," Pollina says. "I feel like we have a lot to do, but it feels like it's falling into place."