Is it November yet?

''This is a going to be a long television campaign,'' said Klein campaign spokesman Brian Smoot. ``You can expect to see Sen. Klein advertising from here on in.''

This quote came from an article in yesterday's Miami Herald. Thee first television salvos in the Clay Shaw-Ron Klein battle for the Florida 22nd. I've already noted the appearance of these commercials and well......after two days I am wishing November was here already. If people who they decide who they vote for based on these commercials, no wonder much of our government is screwed up.

Open Post- Bright & Early, TMH's Bacon Bits, Outside the Beltway,

A week after U.S. Rep. Clay Shaw launched his television advertising campaign, his Democratic challenger unveiled his first commercial.

State Sen. Ron Klein took to the airwaves this week, ratcheting up the television commercial arms race in the campaign to represent coastal Broward and Palm Beach counties in Congress.

The ad is Klein's first foray into television this campaign season, although he did air a radio commercial this spring when President Bush traveled to Fort Lauderdale to headline a Shaw fundraiser.

Klein's first 30-second spot doesn't mention Shaw by name, but it takes subtle jabs at the incumbent's 24-year record. In the ad, Klein talks of needing a ''new direction in Washington.'' He criticizes Congress for offering tax breaks to the oil industry, for how it handled the Medicare prescription drug plan, and for failing ``to question the president on the war in Iraq.''

Like Shaw's first commercial, Klein's will air on network stations in Palm Beach County and on cable systems in Broward County, a much more expensive media market.

Shaw's campaign would not comment on Klein's ad. Ed Patru, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, criticized Klein for taking campaign donations from pharmaceutical companies and oil-related industries -- industries he targets in his commercial.

''He cannot masquerade as an outsider and attack the special interests on one hand, and then rake in dollars from them on the other hand,'' Patru said.

Both candidates will likely be on the airwaves daily in the next three months leading up to the Nov. 7 election, and both have raised millions to spend on advertising. Both national parties consider the race a key battleground in the fight over control of the U.S. House of Representatives.