"You knocked on doors, hit the festivals and appeared at all of the neighborhood meetings," said Callery, who served nearly 20 years on the City Commission and is now running for a second term as mayor.

"You might mail one piece of campaign material, and you handed out literature," he said. "It wasn't too complicated or expensive. I bet I didn't spend $2,000 total that first year. It's amazing compared to today."

Campaigning for Covington City Commission has moved into a more sophisticated arena. Some of the candidates on the Nov. 2 ballot are using techniques once associated only with state or even national campaigns.

Five candidates - Jerry Bamberger, Neil Blunt, Alex Edmondson, Rob Sanders and Jerry Stricker - have campaign Web sites.

ELECTION SECTION

• Election 2004 page

IF YOU GO

When: 7 p.m. today. Where: Holmes High School, 25th & Madison, Covington. What: All eight candidates running for Covington City Commission appear at a campaign forum to take questions from journalists, Covington civic groups and residents.

Four - Bamberger, Blunt, Edmondson and Sanders - are paying professional political and media consultants.

Many of the candidates craft their door-to-door walking lists with the names of likely voters purchased from elections officials. Thousands of dollars are spent on mailings. Most candidates spend hundreds of dollars on large, bright, colorful signs, including the monster 4-foot by 8-foot signs that can cost $100 or more apiece. And at least one and possibly two candidates will raise and spend $40,000 on the election. The previous high was less than $30,000.

Years ago, it was a lot less, said veteran commissioner and former mayor Bernie Moorman.

"We never dreamed of spending that much money back in the early 1970s," said Moorman, a candidate for re-election who figures to spend about $5,000 this year. "Back then, campaigns were very heavily dependent on door-to-door. You would talk to voters, have a beer with them, visit them at their churches or in their neighborhoods.

"There is still a lot of that, but campaigning here has gone to a whole new level," he said.

Most candidates say Covington has made great strides in the last 10 to 15 years and has become a more desirable place to live and work.

That has attracted a newer breed of candidate who is more aggressive and savvy in modern campaigning.

"The qualifications of the non-incumbents is very high this year," Moorman acknowledged. "They are causing a little heat to the incumbents, who have to answer the tough challenges."

"There's been a lot of progress in the city," Callery said. "People want to be a part of it and they'll take a lot of steps and spend a lot of money to get that."

The decision by Commissioner Craig Bohman not to run has left an open seat on the four-member commission, said Rob Sanders, a lawyer and one of five non-incumbents on the ballot.

"There's an open seat now not held by an incumbent, and that raised the level of competition," Sanders said.

Sanders said that when he first got in the race, he did not expect to hire a political consultant.

But hiring Brian Richmond, who has also handled statehouse and county commission candidates, "was the best decision I've made so far."

"Brian's worked on campaigns, he knows how to handle a lot of the minute details - the mailings and walking lists - and can do a lot of that while I'm doing the traditional campaigning," Sanders said. "Plus, he knows how to execute a campaign and can offer advice."

Neil Blunt, a Realtor, said when he got in the race one of his first moves was to establish a Web site.

"I see in my business that 80 percent of business is driven by the Internet," said Blunt, a first-time candidate. "That's a great way to communicate. When I knock on doors, I don't have to stand there and keep people while I'm giving them my campaign platform. I can just tell them to go to my Web site so they can learn about me whenever they want."

Commissioner Jerry Bamberger, who has been on the commission for nearly 15 years, said he hired a consultant and established a Web site because his opponents were doing so.

"I felt I had to do some things to keep up," Bamberger said. "It's impossible anymore to stay up with all the details. A consultant helps you do that."

Some candidates do the more sophisticated campaigning but wonder if it is going too far.

Stricker said that with so many large campaign signs erected this year, the commission should eventually consider an ordinance regulating the size and placement of campaign signs.

He also fears that some people may be unable to run because the campaigns are getting so expensive.

"I wouldn't be surprised if some of the candidates are (eventually) on television," Stricker said.

Edmondson said the campaign has turned into a "beauty contest" that will be won by some candidates who can raise the most money.

"We'll see $30,000 or $40,000 raised this year by some people, with a lot of that special-interest money from people who want to do business with - and in - the city," said Edmondson, a two-term incumbent.

Eventually, Edmondson said, Covington should turn to a ward system where each portion of the city - north, east, south and west - elects a representative to the commission.

"That would provide more representation for the entire city, which we don't have now," he said. "Because in some cases now the winner is going to be whoever raises the most money."

E-mail pcrowley@enquirer.com