A congressional seat opened up in Nevada earlier this year when Senator John Ensign, mired in a scandal over having tried to pay off the husband of a staffer with whom he had a romantic relationship, resigned. Dean Heller, Congressman from the 2nd district, was appointed to replace him by the Republican governor of the state, and that gives us a special House election just in time for the debt ceiling fight. The Tea Party-affiliated Republican nominee, Mark Amodei, is airing this ad on the subject:

No mention is made of the catastrophic effect not raising the debt limit is likely to have on markets, unemployment, and the economy in general. This kind of rampant debt fear drove the Tea Party last fall, but will a younger, more diverse electorate next fall–as we are certain to have in a presidential year with Barack Obama on the ballot–be convinced by such comic appeals? This may be fodder for The Daily Show but that would seem likely to be where its influence stops. And yet Erick Erickson over at Red State is convinced this is “extremely timely” and, on his Twitter feed, that “this is the commercial we should see other candidates duplicating.” [Red State]