CANDIDATES ON BALLOT The following candidates have collected enough signatures to have their names placed on the November ballot for the U.S. Senate seat held by incumbent Sen. Edward Kennedy since 1962: Dale E. Friedgen PARTY: Friedgen is aligned with the Natural Law Party, but has not indicated a party affiliation on his nomination papers. ISSUES: Foreign policy based on trade rather than military involvement; Preventative medicine; Campaign finance reform. Carla Howell PARTY: Libertarian ISSUES: End federal income tax; Abolish U.S. Department of Education; Legalize marijuana; Gun rights. Philip Hyde III PARTY: Timesizing.com ISSUES: Shorter work week; Tax employers for overtime; Internet voting; Abolish sales tax. Edward M. Kennedy PARTY: Democrat ISSUES: Affordable health care; Saving Social Security; Support for education; Higher Wages. Philip Lawler PARTY: Constitution Party ISSUES: Ban on abortion; School choice; Smaller federal government; National sales tax rather than income tax. Jack E. Robinson PARTY: Republican ISSUES: School vouchers; Tax cuts for working families; Gun rights; Campaign finance. ON THE WEB PHILIP HYDE www.timesizing.com CONSTITUTION PARTY www.constitutionparty.com NATURAL LAW PARTY www.natural-law.org PHIL LAWLER www.lawler2000.com

A 30-hour work week at equal or greater pay.

"The fact we are not working 15-20 hours a week already is because of our own stupidity," said Hyde, who also advocates fining companies who ask employees to work overtime.

There's only one thing standing in the way of Hyde and his vision of a brave new working world: the candidacy of 38-year Democratic incumbent Sen. Edward Kennedy.

Hyde isn't alone.

A handful of candidates are using the Senate campaign -- and association with Kennedy's high-profile name -- to lay the groundwork for struggling third parties or to pitch unconventional ideas.

Maynard auto parts store owner Dale E. Friedgen said he didn't spend much time thinking about politics until a friend introduced him to the Natural Law Party in 1992. Two years later Friedgen was running for Congress.

"We like to see government shift from crisis-management to prevention," Friedgen said.

The party would spend more Medicare and Medicaid money on alternative medicine, shift foreign policy emphasis from military involvement to the export of new technologies and promote campaign finance reform, he said.

"Americans are being force-fed candidates," Friedgen said. "We want to present candidates that inspire and have integrity and lead the country."

To the right of the political spectrum is Constitution Party candidate Philip Lawler, a Lancaster father of seven on leave from his job as editor of the conservative Catholic World Report magazine.

The party believes the federal government should adhere scrupulously to the dictates of the U.S. Constitution, he said.

For Lawler, that includes a ban on abortion, an end to the U.S. Department of Education and a federal government limited to defense, postal service, foreign policy and the regulation of interstate commerce.

"The further the government is away from the citizen, household and family, the less it should do," Lawler said.

Harder to place on the ideological spectrum is Hyde and his Timesizing.com party.

"Timesizing" refers to Hyde's belief that shortening the hours people work will not only improve their private lives, but help the country avoid economic boom and bust cycles.

"A lot of these high tech people are working 50-, 60-, 70-hours-a-week and ignoring their families and kids and ruining their lives," Hyde said. "We're turning ourselves into a Third World country by working longer and longer hours."

Hyde, Lawler and Friedgen aren't the only candidates challenging Kennedy, who is also facing opposition from Republican Jack E. Robinson and Libertarian Carla Howell.

Because Howell won more than 3 percent of the vote when she ran for state auditor in 1998, the Libertarian Party is now officially recognized by the state.

While Howell is planning to launch $50,000 worth of anti-Kennedy radio ads next week, Hyde, Lawler and Friedgen concede their campaigns are more about message than victory.

"You don't beat a Kennedy in Massachusetts," Hyde said. "This is an idea race -- a million-dollar idea against a million-dollar name."

For his part, Kennedy plans to "run for the office of United States senator and not against his opponents," said Kennedy spokesman Will Keyser.

Third parties in Massachusetts politics have been relatively ineffective, according to Tobe Berkovitz, a professor of communication at Boston University.

"They haven't captured the imagination. I don't think they really play a role in shaping the campaign discourse," he said.