Dent-Bennett contest heats up with ads airing throughout 15th

The race for the 15th Congressional District seat is now in full swing, with both candidates airing television advertisements throughout the district and accusations of dishonest campaigning flying freely.

The race, in which underdog Democrat Sam Bennett is trying to unseat U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Allentown), had stayed under the political radar for months. But after Bennett recently made the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's "Red to Blue" list, her campaign is being more closely watched to see if she can continue recent improvements in her fundraising.

She'll have to combat attack ads put out by Dent, which variably accuse her of "lying" and "ripping off" money from a political patronage job provided by her "Harrisburg political pals."

Several of the claims in the ads were debunked or clarified by The Morning Call, which quoted Bennett calling the ads "George Bush-Karl Rove smear tactics of the past."

"He can run on his rhetoric, but he can't hide from his record," Bennett campaign spokesman Gary Ritterstein said in a statement.

Bennett, for her part, has struck a more positive tone in her campaigning, but hasn't been above the occasional attack herself. One ad spotlights her time heading a community group to clean up neighborhoods, while another features supposed voters happily thanking Dent for high gas prices and the Iraq War (embedded below).