As you've no doubt heard and read, the Michele Bachmann Tarryl Clark race for Congress will be one of the (if not the) costliest U.S. House races in the country. Bachmann attracts big money for herself and for whoever runs against her. Clark has been on the airways, for example attacking Bachmann for some statements she made callingt the money the feds had extracted from BP to pay damages related to the offshore oil spill "extortion.") I didn't write about that one, so that was just a quick recap.

Bachmann has been silent, at least TV ad-wise, until now. This morning, she released (hat tip to Minnesota Democrats Exposed) her first TV spot. Here's the ad:

As you can see, Bachmann isn't bothering to reintroduce herself or make any positive claims about her own record, but goes straight for Clark's record in the Legislature of voting to raise taxes. The Bachmann campaign is promising to release backup for the ad shortly, which I assume will include a list of Clark's votes to raise taxes. The only factual assertion in the ad is that Clark has voted for tax increases.

It's true that Clark has voted for tax increases, including at the end of the last session.

(Actually, the statement in the ad, a bit less fact-y, is that Clark "loves" taxes. The warmth of Clark's feelings on the subject cannot be stated with factual precision.)

The other notable thing about the ad is that it introduces us to "Jim the Election Guy," a hip, jocular, baggy-jeans-wearin' fella who assures us, with fun music playing behind him, that he's going to be a fixture in the Bachmann ads, guiding us through the campaign season and through the record of the candidate he affectionately nicknames "Taxin' Tarryl."

I'm also told that the Clark campaign will have a statement out shortly on the ad. So I'll update when I get the promised statements from both campaigns.