Hotline On Call

RENO, Nev. -- Nevada state Treasurer Kate Marshall is using the beginning of early voting to renew an attack on her Republican rival, accusing him of wanting to end Medicare.

In the new ad, Marshall, the Democratic nominee in a Sept. 13 special election for an open House seat here, accuses former state GOP chairman Mark Amodei of planning to end the entitlement program through his support of Rep. Paul Ryan's budget.

"Only a mother could defend what lobbyist-politician Mark Amodei has done: Supporting an end to Medicare to give tax breaks to millionaires," the narrator says, over footage of one of Amodei's previous ads. A woman who appears in the ad, meanwhile, calls Marshall "fiscally conservative."

The return to the Ryan budget is becoming a well-worn Democratic tactic after the party won a special election in upstate New York earlier this year. But Marshall has not stuck to the same monotonous script as Rep. Kathy Hochul did when she won that New York special election. Instead, Marshall's ads have focused more on Amodei's record in the legislature, and she moved away from the Medicare charge on air for a ew weeks.

The new ad comes as early voting kicked off Saturday and initial indications are that Democrats are falling behind. More than half the votes cast in Washoe County on Saturday, the first day the polls were open, came from Republican voters, while just 38 percent came from Democrats. Washoe, home of Reno and the most populous county wholly contained within the district, has a 43 percent to 35 percent Republican edge, meaning the GOP's turnout machine is outperforming the Democratic operation. Republicans held a similar advantage in Carson City.

Marshall is largely fighting her own battle, with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee on the sidelines. Marshall will campaign Tuesday with House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer in Sparks and Reno, but the DCCC has not run ads on her behalf. The National Republican Congressional Committee, meanwhile, dumped another $60,000 into television ads on Amodei's behalf on Monday, bringing their total investment up to nearly $600,000. American Crossroads has spent another $250,000 on mail and other online advertising for Amodei.

Watch Marshall's new ad, produced by the Chicago-based firm Adelstein-Liston, after the jump: