t may be that Vermont, where fields sprouted angry signs this year and candidates spouted angry messages, will once again return to quieter days.
The state's controversial civil unions law appears safe, at least for now, after voters reelected Howard Dean, the Democratic governor who shepherded through the Legislature the country's first law granting gay couples legal rights similar to marriage.
Although Republicans took control of the state Senate Tuesday, for the first time in 16 years, legislators say there is still not enough support to overturn the civil unions law.
''There's no point in going through the exercise and stirring everybody up,'' said Oreste Valsangiacomo, a Democrat and ardent opponent of civil unions, who is retiring this year. ''If I was there, I wouldn't support it, because you just don't have the votes.''
Even if civil unions were somehow repealed, with a large enough majority to overcome Dean's expected veto, there's still the Vermont Supreme Court, which ruled this year that gay couples are entitled to the same benefits as married couples. The only alternative to civil unions, some opponents to the law fear, is an even less palatable option: gay marriage.
That's not to say that the civil unions law didn't shake up state government. Dean won his toughest election yet with his lowest percentage of votes ever - 50 percent, the bare minimum required to keep the election from being decided by the Legislature. His rival, Republican Ruth Dwyer, got 38 percent, and Anthony Pollina, a third-party candidate, got 10 percent.
Unlike Dean, many lawmakers who supported civil unions lost this week or in September's primary.
''We lost some really great folks in the House,'' said Beth Robinson, director of Vermonters for Civil Unions. ''That was certainly discouraging to people, to see folks stand up and do the right thing and lose their seat.''
She was talking about legislators including Representative Diane Carmolli, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, who helped write the civil unions law. Carmolli was one of three Democratic legislators in Rutland, all civil unions supporters, who lost to Republicans Tuesday.
''It may have been cathartic to vote us out,'' Carmolli said. ''Sometimes when that happens, you vent your anger; you kind of calm down.''
Exit polls found that a slight majority of those interviewed Election Day said they approved of civil unions. Forty-nine percent said they were either enthusiastic or supportive; 48 percent said they were opposed or angry.
There may still be attempts by some of the state's more conservative legislators to repeal the civil unions law next year. But others who would also like to see the law overturned say the exercise would be fruitless.
''I can't in good faith say I'm going to go down there and repeal it,'' said Representative Vincent Illuzi, a Republican who voted against the law. ''If we repeal the civil unions law, it opens the door to a court ordering same-sex marriage. We're in a constitutional box.''
Even those, like Illuzi, who voted against the law seem relieved at the prospect of a breather from all the controversy.
''I'm hoping to talk about health and education and matters of significance to a huge majority of Vermonters,'' said Senator Bill Doyle, a 32-year veteran of the Legislature who also voted against civil unions.
Gay-rights groups outside Vermont that watched Tuesday's election closely also want to see the state leave the new law alone.
''This was one of our very top priorities,'' said Winnie Stachelberg, political director for the Human Rights Campaign in Washington, D.C. ''I think Vermonters came down squarely on the side of equality.''
A state that usually makes headlines for its liberal leanings, Vermont became known this year for the ugliness of its campaign season. Protesters strewed thousands of black-and-white ''Take Back Vermont'' signs around the state, a shorthand complaint against civil unions and other recent laws seen as evidence of the too-heavy hand of government.
Groups opposed to civil unions formed political action committees dedicated to ousting legislators who supported the law.
But the state may be entering a new season. Dean has announced he will meet with opponents of civil unions. And The Burlington Free Press, the state's largest newspaper, yesterday laid out the task before the governor and the rest of the state.
''Dean's challenge is to heal the civil divide in Vermont,'' the paper wrote. ''Vermonters' challenge, likewise, is to accept the verdict of the voting booth.''
