By Laura A. Kiernan, Globe Correspondent, 1/2/2000

Weary. Burned out. Dispirited. Suffering from chronic Claremont fatigue. That's how House and Senate members describe the mood as they prepare to reconvene in Concord Wednesday to begin the first legislative term of the new millennium. After last year's grueling debate about education financing, the lawmakers bought themselves some breathing room when they decided to help pay for schools with a statewide property tax, now in place until the end of 2002 (provided, of course, a judge doesn't step in). So, the crisis is on hold.

''We need to get back to other things,'' said state Senator Caroline McCarley, a Rochester Democrat, and ''let the dust settle.''

The course of business in the State House will surely be affected by the fact that, while all things seem presidential these days, it is also a statewide election year. Governor Jeanne Shaheen is up for reelection in November - if she decides to seek a third term - as is the entire 400-member House and 24-member Senate.

''You have to pick your shots during an election year,'' said McCarley, which she added ''could be a good thing.'' There may be little election-year enthusiasm for raising any taxes, for example, to fill the $30 million gap in the education financing bill. (Shaheen has said she will support a bill for a 10-cent increase in the cigarette tax.) But one of the hottest election-year issues around the country is health care reform, and there is an HMO ''accountability'' bill coming up this session in Concord. Both House Speaker Donna Sytek(R-Salem), and House Democratic leader Peter Burling of Cornish have pushed a bipartisan effort to resolve differences on this one. ''I want this to happen,'' Sytek said she told committee members.

But for the most part, Sytek says, ''Claremont fatigue'' and no money to spend explain why the House will be focusing on ''study'' bills and not new initiatives. That doesn't leave much to brag about to your constituents during a campaign.

''You'd like to make some bold move you could run on,'' Sytek said during an interview, ''but getting a consensus from a group that's terribly weary ... it's going to be tough.''

State Senator Katie Wheeler(D-Durham) said there are many lawmakers who are wondering whether they should run for reelection at all. Not only was it a rancorous year, Wheeler said, but the emotion was compounded by the sudden death of the then-president of the Senate, Clesson ''Junie'' Blaisdell. All this for a volunteer post that pays $100 a year.

''The job is too big. It's too time-consuming. It's all consuming,'' said Wheeler. ''I'm just dreading going back.''

Many lawmakers, including Sytek, however, see the November elections as an important public referendum on what the direction the state will take when the education financing issue rises again. That task will fall to the newly elected governor and Legislature in January 2001. The public will have to speak its mind on taxes - particularly on a potential income tax - through the candidates it elects. Sytek hopes the public's voice will be loud and clear, because otherwise she is left with the ''gridlock'' she faced in the House last year because opinons were all over the map. But judging from polls, the voters themselves are badly divided on how they feel about education finances and taxes. So there may no mandate to come on this issue.

''It was wrong ... to pretend to have resolved the education funding issue,'' said state Representative Marjorie K. Smith of Durham, an ardent income tax supporter and a member of the Democratic minority on the House Finance Committee, where the early, and tough, spending battles are fought.

''We have fixed a broken system with a broken system, and everybody knows it,'' Smith said about the statewide property tax, which essentially takes cash from property-rich towns and spreads it around to ''equalize'' education funding. A collection of angry ''donor'' towns has now challenged the system in court.

State Representative Ned Gordon(R-Bristol) agrees it's an ''awful plan,'' but he sees little political will to change it. After all, 80 percent of state residents saw some reduction in their property tax bills as a result of it and see themselves as ''better off.''

''I'm assuming they aren't calling up their senators and saying, `We need to do something about this,''' Gordon said.

Candidates debate on TV this week

The sprint toward the Feb. 1 presidential primary officially begins this week, and it looks like there will be no avoiding a candidate, in person or on the air, whether it's television or radio. Vice President Al Gore and former US senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey will have a televised debate Wednesday from the University of New Hampshire in Durham, followed on Thursday by the six candidates for the Republican nomination, also televised from Durham.

If you're keeping tabs, the latest poll from the American Research Group in Manchester has Bradley leading Gore by 12 points, 48 percent to 36 percent, among likely Democratic voters, with 16 percent undecided. On the GOP side, Arizona Senator John McCain has a 9-point lead over Texas Governor George W. Bush, 39 percent to 30 percent. Magazine publisher Steve Forbes is at 11 percent, and talk show host and former ambassador Alan Keyes had 4 percent. Conservative activist Gary Bauer and US Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah each had 1 percent, with 14 percent of the likely GOP voters undecided.

The telephone poll was conducted from Dec. 17 to Dec. 21, and had a margin of error of 4 percent.

The Gore campaign released some numbers last week about its ground-level campaign effort, which includes 11 field offices around New Hampshire. Campaign spokesman Doug Hattaway said that in 1999, mostly since late summer, the Gore campaign has knocked on doors in 143,000 homes in 42 communities in New Hampshire and reached 160,000 more households by telephone. Gore supporters with signs supporting the vice president's campaign have been appearing regularly in 37 communities.

The Bradley campaign of course has not been goofing off. New Hampshire spokesman Mo Elleithee says Bradley has four New Hampshire offices (Manchester, Concord, Berlin and a new one to open in Keene). Supporters have been canvassing in communities every weekend and reached 100,000 households in a massive effort in July. Elleithee says the campaign is emphasizing the ''personal touch'' and has been telephoning Democratic and independent voters to let them know when Bradley is in their community.

Sununu took path to White House post

Just when will Shaheen let everybody know about her reelection plans? Consider some history. In May 1988, three months after he helped then-vice president George Bush take a dramatic win in the New Hampshire GOP presidential primary, governor John E. Sununu announced he would not seek a fourth term. Sununu, who has eight children, said he had big college costs ahead of him and needed to ''get a real job.'' By November, Bush was the new president and Sununu had been named White House chief of staff.

Shaheen, of course, is a big Gore supporter and her husband, Bill, is Gore's New Hampshire chairman.

Check the record on state's choices

According to a chart recently published on The Washington Post Web page, New Hampshire has a pretty poor record of chosing the person who ultimately gets the Democratic nomination for president. In the 10 races since 1952 where there was a contest, New Hampshire was wrong six times. In 1968, that was due to a quirk of history. Lyndon Johnson, who hadn't officially announced a bid for reelection, won the primary as a write-in candidate, barely defeating US senator Eugene McCarthy. Johnson then decided not to run, and vice president Hubert Humphrey was the eventual nominee, losing to Richard Nixon.

On the GOP side, New Hampshire was wrong twice out of the 10 races, choosing Henry Cabot Lodge in 1964 over Arizona's Barry Goldwater, and picking Pat Buchanan in 1996 over then US Senate majority leader Bob Dole of Kansas.

But, Secretary of State William Gardner says, no state has a better record than New Hampshire when it comes to picking the eventual president. New Hampshire has been wrong only once on that score once since 1952 -- with Bill Clinton. He came in second here in 1992 to the late Paul Tsongas of Massachusetts.

Anti-McCain ads are not going away

''I don't work for him. But I love him dearly.'' So says Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform in Washington to New Hampshire GOP chairman Steve Duprey 's demand that ATR pull its not-so-nice television ad about McCain and campaign finance reform.

If you missed it, the ad, which will run for two more weeks, says McCain's campaign finance reform effort will hurt Republicans and help lawyers, unions and abortion rights groups. It even has Clinton morphing into McCain, with a little smirk on his face. Simply put, the ATR claims restrictions on campaign spending before elections would hurt conservative groups and give the edge to causes it says are favored by the big media establishment. It also wants union members to be able to stop their dues from being used for politics.

Duprey called the ad a ''disgrace'' that ''insults the intelligence of New Hampshire voters.'' Norquist says there's nothing ''incorrect'' in the ad and, while Duprey can tell people ''not to hit hard,'' he's not backing off his McCain ad. In fact, Norquist said, he may come up with another one.

Group to candidates: Spend more on kids

Short takes: Marian Wright Edelman, the founder of the Children's Defense Fund, will be in New Hampshire Jan. 13 for a series of events organized by Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities. That group is trying to persuade presidential candidates to spend less money on bombs and more money on kids ... Fran Visco, president of the National Breast Cancer Coalition Fund, will be at the Capitol Center for the Arts in Concord Jan. 10 for a special town meeting on current laws and regulations regarding breast cancer screening and treatment and on funding decisions for research. Sponsors of the meeting include the New Hampshire Breast Cancer Coalition and the College for Lifelong Learning ... And on Jan. 17, Doris ''Granny D'' Haddock, who has been on a campaign finance walk-athon across the country, will join Shaheen in celebrating New Hampshire's first official holiday named for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The event will be held at Notre Dame College in Manchester.

Got a tip or a comment from the campaign trail, state government or town hall? The Political Diary wants to hear from you at: The Boston Globe/New Hampshire Weekly, 1650 Elm St., Manchester NH 03101, or by e-mail at iernan@globe.com. Please include home and work telephone numbers.