With all 150 members of the House of Representatives and all 30 state senators facing re-election contests in just months, Montpelier is awash in debate over the political impact passing civil unions might have at the ballot box in November.

“We will have to work hard, but we would have had to work hard anyway,” said Rep. Barbara Postman, a Democrat from the Northeast Kingdom who voted for the bill, describing the campaign ahead. “I have faith that the people of Vermont will choose tolerance,” Postman said.

Rep. Postman may be unique; most legislators who supported H.847 in the House of Representatives asked that their names not be used in this story for fear of attracting attention to an issue they believe has gotten them more notice than they ever wanted.

Some said they had heard enough from opponents of the bill, many complaining this correspondence came from people outside of their districts or Vermont. Supporters said they are counting on that and the support of gay and lesbian constituents to ride to victory.

Rep. William Aswad (D- Burlington), who ran unopposed two years ago in Burlington’s notoriously conservative New North End, said he received messages from a surprising number of voters in his district who described themselves as gay or lesbian. Aswad said he was not surprised to hear opposition to the bill from the opponents, many of whom, he said, had never been counted among his supporters on election day.

“The number of gay and lesbian constituents is greater that you realize,” Aswad said. “This is a segment of our population that just isn’t going away.”

Rep. Aswad said he had not heard of any opponents who were planning on running against him to date.

Judy Murphy, an organizer with the Freedom to Marry Task Force and state president of the National Organization for Women, which supports civil unions, agreed with Rep. Aswad that the gay and lesbian community and its supporters would not go away easily. Murphy said the task force has created a long list of supporters of civil union and she expected it would be used to galvanize support for incumbents who voted for the legislation.

“We are planning to help those who voted for civil unions. We will be forming local Political Action Committees and using our big lists of supporters to raise funds and provide volunteers to candidates.” Murphy said.

Supporters may not be alone in their drive to organize voters. Murphy said she recently uncovered a letter sent out to clergy in the state by Randall Terry, leader of the right wing anti-abortion group called Operation Rescue and a presence generally unwelcomed on both sides of the civil union debate. In the letter, Terry urged clergy to consider running for office or to recruit members of their church to run because of the passage of the civil union bill.

Although Terry recently admitted defeat, closed his Montpelier office, and left the state, his early threats were not forgotten.

One lawmaker who was a prime target of Randall Terry is Rep. Kathy Voyer (R-Morristown), a supporter of civil unions and a member of the House Judiciary Committee that drafted the initial bill.

Rep. Voyer said she found herself one day in the State House confronted by Terry, who threatened her, saying that he would make sure she “got the retirement she so richly deserved.”

Voyer said she is aware that the anti-civil union organizers are actively looking for an opponent for her this fall, but one has yet to surface. Voyer said she made her decision to support civil unions without regard to the election, but now that time has passed and the election draws closer, she is counting on supporters of the legislation to help her win re-election.

“I wasn’t thinking about politics when I voted for this bill,” said Voyer. “but now it is clear that without their (supporters of civil unions) help, there is a real chance I could lose.”

Voyer said she needed financial support for her campaign, but was more interested in activating grassroots help, and she said she hoped those who agreed with her vote would reach out to their friends and neighbors on her behalf.

The debate over this legislation comes at a critical time for both parties as the fight to gain control over each branch of the legislature reaches a fever pitch between the two major political parties. Perhaps the fiercest fight is in the House of Representatives, where the Democrats have held the majority for the past 10 years. The election in 1998 saw that majority shrink by 15 seats to a slim 2-seat advantage. Republicans and many Statehouse observers believe this might be the year they have been waiting for.

Already Republican gubernatorial frontrunner and civil union opponent Ruth Dwyer has predicted a GOP win, and her campaign manager, Kathie Summers, says civil unions may be a major reason why.

“In 17 years I have never seen an outpouring of emotion on an issue,” said Summers. “I have never seen depth of the emotion quite like this. Six months out, I have over 500 names of volunteers who want to work on the campaign based on this issue.”

Dwyer’s campaign spokeswoman said this issue alone won’t bring a win to her candidate. She predicted the culmination of many controversial decisions in the past few sessions would play in Dwyer’s favor.

“This is the straw that broke the camel’s back, people feel that they are not being listened to, things are being shoved down our throat,” she said.