The National Republican Congressional Committee is tactfully jumping ship and leaving Mark Sanford to his own devices in the special election for the Charleston-based House district in South Carolina, but the Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee is going for it, and straight to the jugular at that. Do you think they smell an opportunity, perhaps?

Notice the woodsy-looking B-roll? Brutal.

It’ll be hitting the local television airwaves starting on Friday, with less than three weeks to go until the May 7th election:

Sanford said Democrats are now spending $1 million against him, citing figures obtained from media reports and documents on campaign TV ad buys. He contends House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Democrats are “trying to buy” the district.

“My opponent has gone through great lengths to distance herself from the liberal Beltway crowd, but it simply isn’t believable that those same folks would be trying to buy this race for someone who would truly be an independent voice in Washington,” Sanford said in a statement.

Jesse Ferguson, a spokesman for the DCCC, vowed House Democrats won’t stop.

“This is an overwhelmingly Republican district that has become competitive because Republicans yet again nominated a flaed candidate,” Ferguson said, adding the DCCC “will aggressively compete in uphill fights even in the most Republican territory.”

Anyhow, here’s Sanford’s first television ad aimed at Colbert Busch, hitting her on her union involvement:

Probably a smart move to choose the union issue for your major ad campaign — that union dust-up with Boeing trying to just trying to build factories and create jobs in South Carolina was quite the kerfuffle, and is probably fresh in plenty of South Carolinians’ minds — but that ethics-attack against him was rough.