The democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate says he’s intrigued by an idea to put a tiny tax on e-mail in order to end spam. Art Small says he is inundated by junk email or spam. Small says Microsoft founder Bill Gates has suggested it’s technically possible to levy a tax of something like a tenth-of-a-cent on every e-mail that’s sent — a move Gates believes would get rid of spam. “People spew out millions and millions of these e-mails and I thought this was a nifty idea,” Small says. Small, though, admits he’s not sure how the tax would be implemented.Small says if it can be done, he would vote to do it. And Small maintains it wouldn’t cost the average citizen “anything.” Small made his comments last night during a joint appearance with Senator Chuck Grassley on the Iowa Radio Network. Grassley did not comment on the idea.