Print edition: 
WASHINGTON — In Florida, Democratic Senate candidate Kendrick Meek unveiled his first television ad Monday, a disco-themed portrait of primary opponent Jeff Greene as a billionaire carpetbagger and Wall Street hustler who "helped to fuel the economic meltdown."
Brad Ellsworth also rolled out a contrast ad for his television debut as a Democratic Senate candidate in Indiana. He skipped the traditional upbeat biographical sketch to take a swipe at "the bull" spouted by Washington special interests. "It's like they live and breathe the stuff," Ellsworth says against the backdrop of an abandoned factory. The message is not-so-subtly aimed at his opponent, former lobbyist Dan Coats.
It's getting ugly out there.
In some races, candidates aren't waiting to find out who their opponent will be before going for the jugular. With the Wisconsin GOP primary still seven weeks away, Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold is already warning Wisconsin voters that front-runner Ron Johnson would "hand over the Great Lakes to the oil companies." The Feingold ad shows a U.S. map and the dark shadow of an oil slick moving from the Gulf of Mexico to, improbably, Lake Michigan.
Every new election cycle, the tone of campaign rhetoric seems to grow sharper and more personal. But a 2010 calendar frontloaded with contested primaries, combined with scores of vulnerable incumbents and both sides playing the role of underdog, means there's an extra dash of hot sauce this year.
"We always say this is the most negative cycle, but 2010 probably will be it," said Evan Tracey, who tracks campaign ads for the Virginia firm Campaign Media Analysis Group. "The national issues are huge, and both parties hold the view that you have to blow up your opponent."
The general rule for congressional races is that the party out of power wages the more negative campaign — which for Republicans this year is translating into an ad ratio of about 80 percent negative to 20 percent positive.
But Democrats can't afford to stay positive, either, not with Obama's slumping popularity and voter opposition to the Democratic agenda.
"When we say we need to define the race and contrast with our opponent, that's what we have to do on the air and day to day in the campaign," said Eric Schultz, spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. "If we don't put this on the table, we are going to lose."
