Campaigns for the mid-term elections for the U.S. House of Representatives only started in earnest about a month ago, and yet, they have already succeeded in annoying me.

Particularly infuriating is the banter between incumbent Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Wichita) and former Rep. Todd Tiahrt. Tiahrt served Kansas’ 4th Congressional district for 16 years after being elected in 1994 and then lost the U.S. Senate race to Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) in 2010.

Pompeo, elected to Kansas 4th District in 2010, and Tiahrt are competing to claim Pompeo’s chair.

I receive emails almost daily, in the form of press releases, from Pompeo’s campaign team. Of the emails I have received from the campaign since June 13, eight of 12 have Tiahrt mentioned in the subject line.

The majority of those emails consist of the Pompeo team accusing Tiahrt of various things including Tiahrt making false claims about National Security Agency activities, Tiahrt refusing to discuss debates with Pompeo’s team and, as recently as Monday, that Tiahrt’s claim that he secured the earmark that helped capture notorious serial killer Dennis Rader, a.k.a. the BTK Killer, was in fact false.

Normally, I can tolerate the banter between two political candidates. I tend to ignore all the television commercials that feature political opponents attacking one another. Now that I am a college newspaper editor, however, it seems like I can’t get away from it, no matter how hard I try.

The campaigns haven’t been going on that long, yet you would not think so if you have been getting almost daily emails from a campaign team blasting the other team. I suppose my only consolation is that Tiahrt’s campaign hasn’t attempted to backlash Pompeo’s with various press releases sent to me. Of course, Tiahrt could be waiting until Election Day gets closer before he starts firing back with attacks on Pompeo.

 I’m not saying the elections are not important. In fact, I think this year’s election is one of the most important, considering the political climate in Washington, especially after the government shutdown last fall. However, I could do without all of these attacks on each campaign this early in the game.

However, I doubt that these arguments will slow down at all as the Aug. 5 primary election approaches. If they keep up and start getting more personal, as I’m sure they will, I will be a much happier man on that day, once it’s all over.

Even if I don’t like who is elected, I’ll just be glad not to have my inbox cluttered with press releases full of political attacks.

The winner of the Republican primary will face Democrat Perry L. Schuckman in the Nov. 4 primary election. Who knows what attacks that fight will bring, probably worse ones than I’m already seeing