Idaho Congressman Walt Minnick has launched two new campaign commercials, one touting his work on veterans' issues and the other criticizing GOP challenger Raul Labrador for his votes in the Idaho Legislature on domestic violence issues. Labrador has no beef with the veterans' ad, which highlights Minnick's Army service and his work on legislation to expand benefits for veterans and their families. But he takes sharp issue with the domestic violence ad, which features the mother of Angie Leon, a young Nampa woman who was killed by her abusive husband in 2003.

Labrador said his votes on bills in 2007 and 2008 couldn't have saved Leon's life in 2003. "I think it's a shameful ad, because it seems to imply that if we would have passed the legislation that he's talking about, that this poor family would have been prevented the tragedy that fell upon them. ... In a political season, I could never conceive of using a family's tragedy for my political purposes." Minnick's campaign defended the ad, saying Labrador has a "very troubling record on domestic violence issues." You can read my full story here at spokesman.com, and see the veterans ad here and the domestic violence ad here.