A new TV ad in the 26th Congressional District race is being released today by the House Majority PAC, a Democratic super PAC, and the SEIU. It opens with a tiger sauntering toward the camera as the narrator says, "They say a tiger can't change his stripes, but Tony Strickland's trying to change his."

It then features newspaper excerpts that, among things, refer to Strickland as "a Tea Party favorite," and attacks Strickland for having voted against stem cell research and for having received a "zero" score from the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. "He says one thing when he wants your vote," the narrator says, "but his record is extremely different."

The choice of words is plainly intentional, and ties into a campaign theme that each candidate has been using against the other in political mail: that their opponent is "too extreme."

The ad is the first TV buy of the fall campaign attacking Strickland, and follows a buy last week from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce attacking Brownley. Time Warner Cable records indicate the House Majority PAC has scheduled more than $900,000 in local cable advertising through Election Day. The super PAC spent $700,000 during the primary campaign on positive ads promoting Brownley.