Vermont: Shap Smith

Vermont House Speaker Shap Smith, D-Morristown, has been working the phones for the past few days, trying to get other House speakers to join him in a letter to Congress about the pending stimulus package.

He'd said he had called speakers in Maine, Connecticut, Oregon, Rhode Island, New Jersey -- to name a few. He had hoped to have a group letter ready for delivery at 5 p.m. Wednesday.

Then he heard that the U.S. Senate and House had essentially reached agreement on the stimulus package -- just a day after the Senate passed its version.

That was unexpectedly fast. And it short-circuited Smith's effort to try out some speaker muscle.

The 2008 presidential cycle is breaking new ground: the most successful female and minority candidates, huge leaps in voter turnout, and a reinvigorated excitement about politics.

But the excitement generated from the candidates topping the party ticket is not just confined to the presidential race: Vermont officials and political observers are feeling the enthusiasm too. Many have dubbed the phenomena of heightened interest, activism and turnout the "Obama Factor."