Queens Republican Sen. Serphin Maltese, the Democrats' top target in their quest to take control of the Senate this fall, is up on the air with his first TV ad more than six months before the election.
According to Maltese's campaign, this is the first of a series of ads (the next will highlight his crime-fighting record) that will be running "on a heavy cable television schedule" throughout the 15th SD. Channels include everything from CNN and TNT to NY1.
The spot is scheduled to start airing tonight. The campaign would not release details about either the size of the buy or the duration of time the ad will air.
It's hard to overstate how unusual this is. Generally speaking, state lawmakers wait until at least after the legislative session ends in June to begin campaigning for re-election.
But given how Maltese came so close to losing his seat in 2006 to Democrat Al Baldeo, who received zero assistance from the Democratic Party, the Republicans are clearly giving this election the pull-court-press treatment.
Maltese recently said he has been assured by Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno that the GOP is willing to spend "as much as it takes" - the $1 million figure was bandied about - to keep him in office.
The Democrats are planning to run Councilman Joe Addabbo, who recently held a fundraiser, but Baldeo says he wants to take another crack at unseating Maltese and threatens to remain in the general election on a minor party line of his own creation even if he loses a Democratic primary.
Interestingly, the spot prominently features former Gov. Eliot Spitzer and makes no mention of the fact that he's no longer in office. No doubt the Republicans hope to remind viewers of the Democratic leader who was felled by a prostitution scandal without actually pointing that out.
Here's the script:
State Senator Serf Maltese. You see Serf in the neighborhood all the time. But did you know he works just as hard in Albany? Good thing, too.
When Gov. Spitzer tried to slash $440 million in local education funding, Serf Maltese fought back and won.
When Spitzer moved to cut $350 million from our hospitals and nursing homes. Maltese stood up for us, and saved vital services.
Serf Maltese, fighting for Queens, delivering for you.
