Democrat Peter Kocot and Green party candidate Michael Aleo, both of Northampton, for the second time this year are the contestants in the 1st Hampshire state representative district. Kocot won the 1st Hampshire House seat in a special election April 9 by a 62 percent to 38 percent margin over Aleo. The two are once again on Tuesday's ballot in Northampton, Hatfield, Southampton, Westhampton, and Montgomery. Kocot, 46, was the longtime aide to former Rep. William P. Nagle Jr. Nagle, who had served the district for more than 26 years. During his six months in office, Kocot has been an advocate for the 1st Hampshire District and an outspoken opponent of the way rank-and-file legislators are often left out of the decision-making process on Beacon Hill. Aleo, 29, has continued to be a visible presence in the district and is one of fewer than 10 legislative candidates statewide to have qualified for Clean Elections funding. Kocot tried to qualify for the public funding system by collecting 200 or more contributions of between $5 and $100, but not all of the paperwork was filled out correctly and he was disqualified. Aleo said having more than $16,000 in Clean Elections funding to campaign with has been one of the biggest differences between this campaign and his campaign in the special election. The first time around, he had only $6,500 to spend compared to Kocot's $24,000. "The Clean Elections funding allows my campaign to do more in terms of getting the word out. We'll run a few (newspaper) ads; we've had an easier time printing flyers," Aleo said. And this time, Aleo said, "People know my name, which is really, really important." But perhaps the biggest differencea between this election and the April election, Aleo said, are that "a war is brewing and there is a governor's race and serious ballot questions." Like Aleo, Kocot has been campaigning against ballot Questions 1 and 2, which would eliminate the personal income tax and bilingual education, respectively. Unlike most incumbent state legislators, Kocot has also campaigned for Question 3, which asks voters whether they approve of spending taxpayers' money on campaigns. Aleo and Kocot met with failed Democratic gubernatorial candidate Warren Tolman - the only one to have qualified for Clean Elections - at a rally in Northampton Wednesday. Kocot and Aleo also have joined in supporting Question 5 in the 1st Hampshire District, which asks voters whether they support the electoral reform known as instant runoff, or preferential voting. The two candidates are in agreement on almost every issue facing the district and the state, in fact. Both are for gay marriage and against the death penalty. Both consider increasing affordable housing and strengthening the state's social services safety nets as priorities. In recent weeks, Kocot and Aleo, who are both opposed to a pre-emptive, unilateral war on Iraq, also got together for breakfast to discuss ways of publicizing the high cost such a war would have in the district. Aleo maintains, however, that the Legislature needs Green Party members to push Democrats to adopt more progressive laws. The two most immediate reforms he would like to see are full funding of Clean Elections and the adoption of instant runoff voting. "Without a progressive third party in the Legislature, we're never going to see true reform," he said. But, Aleo added, "I do think it's a victory when we have progressive legislators like Peter. It also creates a circumstance in this election where you have a no lose-no lose situation."