The day started around sunrise with Tim Walz recording radio ads.

Then came the conference call with a handful of reporters from across the nation, providing the Democratic response to an Iraq speech made by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

After that came interviews with Time magazine and National Public Radio for upcoming stories about the Mankato teacher’s attempt to defeat six-term incumbent Congressman Gil Gutknecht.

Then came the late-morning speech to hundreds of Mankato teachers and some quick volunteer work with Habitat for Humanity workers in North Mankato in the afternoon.

It ended with him talking to Rochester residents about the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad Wednesday evening.

And it wasn’t an unusually busy day at this point in the campaign, Walz said.

“It’s starting to ramp up to be like this,” he said.

The activity isn’t the only thing ramping up. So’s his optimism.

On the air

After months of working to raise campaign cash — and outraising Gutknecht in the first part of the year — Walz is ready to spend some of it. His first broadcast ads will begin Friday on radio stations in Mankato and several other cities in southern Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District.

“We think we’ve been winning the ground war,” the former Army National Guard command sergeant said of the grassroots campaigning of the past year. “So now we go to the air war.”

The first ad will focus on health care. Walz recorded others as well at the pre-7 a.m. session at a Mankato recording studio, to be aired later.

Refuting Rumsfeld

At 8:30 a.m., Walz participated in a national teleconference organized by the Democratic National Committee to respond to Rumsfeld’s Tuesday speech to the American Legion national convention.

Rumsfeld compared people critical of the Bush administration’s handling of the war in Iraq to people who tried to appease Nazi Germany in the 1930s.