SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Democratic Senate candidate Brad Ellsworth says he is not trying to run from his two terms in Congress with a new commercial that talks about those in Washington who waste taxpayer money and don't care whether lobbyists write the laws.
"I have been in Congress. I'm not running away from that," the U.S. representative from Evansville said during a Wednesday campaign stop in South Bend.
Ellsworth, whose web page features a photo of him leaning against a sheriff's car, said the message he is trying to get across is that the nearly 25 years he spent working at the Vanderburgh County Sheriff's Department is what defines him most, not his time in Washington.
"I've been there about long enough to see how messed up it really is, and pledge to be the person to continue to fix that," he said.
The 30-second ad released Tuesday shows Ellsworth inside a dilapidated building saying: "One thing that 25 years as a sheriff teaches you is zero tolerance for bull. There's too much at stake. But out in Washington it's like they live and breathe the stuff."
Ellsworth ends the ad by saying: "The special interests and lobbyists already have enough senators on their side."
Ellsworth never mentions his opponent, Republican Dan Coats, but twice mentions lobbyists. Coats worked as a lobbyist in Washington for some financial companies.
Indiana Republican Party Chairman Murray Clark released a statement criticizing the ad by Ellsworth, calling it "a smoke and mirrors attempt to hide the fact that he has been part of the problem in Washington and would rather talk about anything other than his record there."
Coats campaign spokesman Pete Seat said he wasn't surprised Ellsworth was running an ad four months before the election to try to distance himself from President Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
"He has a lot of explaining to do for his rubber-stamp support of the liberal Obama-Pelosi agenda," Seat said.
Ellsworth said he has voted independently, citing his decision to go against Obama in "cap-and-trade" legislation aimed at limiting global warming emissions by allowing companies to buy and sell permits to pollute.
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