LANSING- There's nothing left in Virg Bernero's inner office but two empty desks and a bare conference table.

At a desk near the front door of the office suite sits a lone college intern working on a paper for class, waiting to answer a phone that rarely rings.

"We only get one or two calls a day," said Breanna Byrd, one of three former Bernero staffers who take turns manning the vacant office in the Farnum Building. "We used to get tons."

In front of Byrd are phone numbers that she uses to transfer callers.

"They're usually looking for Virg, or a person who used to work here. We forward those to the mayor's office," she said, referring to Bernero's new office in City Hall a block away.

The calls diminished to a trickle after Bernero resigned from the seat to become Lansing mayor on Jan. 1. His Senate term expires at the end of this year.

Constituents in Bernero's Ingham County district are now referred to their state representative.

"We've been getting a few more calls," said Martha Miles, chief of staff for Rep. Michael Murphy, D-Lansing. "Most were calling here anyway."

Nancy Nyquist, a legislative aide to Rep. Gretchen Whitmer, D-East Lansing, said that calls after Bernero left are "up a little bit, but still manageable.

"Because we're here in town, it's a bit different."

But Whitmer's suite could become the third vacant office in the House Office Building if she defeats her Republican opponent in the March 14 special election to fill Bernero's Senate seat. Vince Green, R-Okemos, defeated John Findlay, R-Mason, by one vote. As of press time, no recount had been scheduled.

The other two open seats belonged to Reps. Clarence Phillips, D-Pontiac, who was elected mayor of Pontiac in November, and Herb Kehrl, D-Monroe, who died last November. Gov. Jennifer Granholm has scheduled a special election to fill them alongside the November election..

The vacant House offices are run on a non-partisan basis by one full-time staffer, said Tricia Keith, director of the House Business Office.

"We make sure there's someone there to answer calls, respond to constituent inquiries and things like that," Keith said. "The staffer is reactive, rather than proactive."

The job of manning the phones is usually offered to the lowest-paid staffer, but since Bernero took most of his legislative staff to City Hall, the job is split among three paid interns who schedule their working hours around classes.

"It's really, really boring," said Byrd, a social relations senior at Michigan State University who sometimes passes the time watching a small television behind her desk. "I basically just try to keep myself awake."