Firearms may be a great accessory for campaign ads, but apparently not if you are a Democrat running for Congress in Central Washington's 4th Congressional District.

Estakio Beltran, one of two Democrats and 12 candidates overall running for the open seat in the 4th, announced a TV spot last week, then abruptly pulled it.

The 30-second commercial has Beltran in an arid open space, blasting away at an elephant-shaped pinata with a pump action shotgun. He racks out an empty while saying the standard ". . . and I approve this message" tagline before riding off on a burro in a direction that a sign suggests Congress is thataway.

A little loud, but in a crowded race that has one of the Republican candidates offering a gun giveaway with an AR-15, not totally out of the box. It did draw criticism from gun control groups, and from Republicans who contended that Democrats would be incensed by one of their candidates blasting away at a donkey, the traditional symbol for Democrats.

The ad had a very short shelf life and was pulled after a few days, which seems like a lot of trouble to go through for such a short run.

Asked why, Beltran spokesman Grady O'Brien sent out a prepared statement, explaining: “The purpose of the video was to call attention to a do-nothing Congress in need of a kick in the butt. Now it’s time to move forward and focus on the issues that are important to the people of this district: jobs through innovation, education, and accountability in Washington, D.C."

The official campaign version was pulled from Youtube, but nothing really dies on the Internet. The above version, which features the ad twice, is still available elsewhere.

Decide for yourself: Clever ad by a young campaign or out-of-bounds rookie mistake.

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