Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords' campaign debuted a new TV ad today attacking Republican Jesse Kelly's promises to reduce support for federal education funding if elected in November. Kelly has said he opposed the stimulus package, which provided money to the state of Arizona for K-12 eduction and university funding. He also opposed more recent legislation that provided additional federal funding for school districts and health-care programs.

"Arizona schools have been cut too much already,” says Anne Hilby, spokeswoman for the Giffords campaign. “Under Jesse Kelly’s plan to cut a billion dollars from our schools, either you’d have to pay more in local taxes or more teachers would get fired. The Kelly education plan is bad for kids, but it’s good for politicians who like to suck up to right-wing talk radio hosts.”

Kelly responded via e-mail: “The choices for our schools should be made by the community and parents because top-down dictates from Washington have been proven not to work. Just having the Federal Government borrow more money from China will not improve education.”