There’s scores to settle and this third round bout between Kevin Anderson and Peter Draper was never going to be a ho-hum, gentlemanly contest of quiet politicking and electioneering on policies only.

This is more than personal. 

The fact is the Nationals are desperate to retain Tamworth and well they should be. Winning is the thing they hold dearest and there’s a long history behind this bout.

Peter Draper won the first round, Anderson the second, and the third round is a decider. It’s extremely unlikely there’ll ever be a fourth go-round.

So, already the accusations, the tit-for-tat, the jockeying for prime spots in media, the tweaking of truth for slogan, recycling of old announcements and old grants, occupy media. 

In truth, journalists are over it too.

 While they enjoy the cut and thrust of the debate, more and more they are cynical to the state of boredom of the political propensity to be less than fair dinkum and full of tunnel-visioned verbosity or the strangulated 

hold-the-line political plagiarism.

So, while a metro daily yesterday reported the shock-horror of the sight of a bloke in a Country Labor T-shirt handing out Peter Draper how-to-vote cards in Tamworth – ostensibly by a Nationals spy on the street – we’re expected to see this nasty union alliance as headline making.

Those who hand out those ubiquitous how-to-vote cards, will tell you of the certain unwritten laws where 

like-parties will often do that, even to the point of manning a collective table for a few parties for voters, while little old ladies and young men get out of the sun, visit the loo or go for a cuppa.

You’ve seen it– few parties have enough of those generous loiterers to go round the ranks. 

The revelations coincide with the appearance this week of a flyer, suggesting Mr Draper is powerless to deliver on promises, so why vote for him. 

It would appear that the sitting member’s party is behind that postal mail out of election material, although it is curiously without any party endorsing just WHO you should vote for, and carries a credit line sourced to this newspaper.

It includes selective reporting and stories from The Leader from the 2011 election, and one might be forgiven for thinking the newspaper is validating this view. 

The giveaway, although many wouldn’t even know it, is that it is authorised by a man who happens to be The Nationals electorate chairman. 

You can bet the stakes will be raised even higher in the last 10 days.