It starts with innocent phone calls, friendly voices on the other end asking for the name and e-mail address of the reporter who covers politics. Whoever the callers are, they share — or sell — the names and addresses to political parties and campaigns.

Early in the campaign season, the number of e-mails arriving at The Free Press — and presumably every daily newspaper in the country — starts getting a little silly. By late summer, it’s maddening. And then comes fall.

Take the September numbers: 1,335 election-related e-mails sent to The Free Press. That’s more than double the already-overbearing 614 from August.

The vast majority are from candidates, and most attack the sender’s opponent. A few come from organizations trying to draw attention to themselves — colleges or think tanks offering expert opinions on the races. A couple each week are attempts to get publicity about money-making endeavors — a firm selling “Bark Obama” and “John McCanine” chew toys for your dog or a pickle company promoting “The Pickle People Party,” which has a party platform favoring getting pickled, day or night.

A Lone Star salute
Texas Congressman Chet Edwards — the Democrat who will be George W. Bush’s representative in Washington once the president retires to his Crawford ranch — came to Minnesota this week to campaign for Rep. Tim Walz, DFL-Mankato.

Another reason you might know Edwards’ name is he was reportedly among the final four choices on Barack Obama’s list of running mates.

But Edwards’ visit was more about his chairmanship of the appropriations subcommittee that funds Veterans Affairs, and the Waco resident praised Walz’s record on veterans issues during stops in Rochester, Owatonna and Mankato.

Edwards talked about the $16.3 billion increase in funding for veterans health care and other benefits during Walz’s first year in Congress, an amount that exceeded the combined increases for those programs in the previous 12 years.

Edwards credited Walz in particular for pushing an increase in the mileage reimbursement paid to veterans who travel to get medical care at VA hospitals, bumping it from 11 cents a mile to 41 cents in the upcoming fiscal year.

“Tim twisted my arm so hard I thought I was going to have to hire a chiropractor,” Edwards said to the group of veterans at the Morson-Ario VFW.

A new Davis ad
Brian Davis, Walz’s Republican opponent, is back on the TV airwaves after an extended absence. The new ad attempts to persuade voters that the Walz they see in southern Minnesota behaves differently in Washington.

The two campaigns are sending dueling e-mails about the veracity of the ad. There is one statement that’s misleading as it attempts to keep alive an issue that’s already been settled — exactly the way Davis wanted.

The ad says Walz voted earlier this year against offshore oil drilling. That’s true, but then the ad tries to make those votes by Walz important to viewers by saying they “will just keep gas prices high.” The second part is clearly false because the moratorium on offshore drilling no longer exists.

Walz and other Democrats eventually dropped their opposition and supported a budget bill that allowed the moratorium on offshore drilling to expire. That bill passed. Since the offshore drilling ban no longer exists, it can’t be argued that Walz’s earlier votes will “keep gas prices high.”

Debate watch
There are three opportunities for area residents to watch political debates in the next five days with a day of rest provided between each.

At 7 p.m. today (on KARE, channel 11) is a one-hour Senate debate between Republican Sen. Norm Coleman, Democrat Al Franken and Independence Party candidate Dean Barkley. At 7 p.m. Monday at the MSU student union is a 90-minute congressional debate between Davis and Walz. And at 8 p.m. Wednesday is the final presidential debate — 90 minutes and on every major TV network.