Businessman Chris Hackett (R) has started airing two television advertisements in the 10th district as part of a district-wide cable buy with a price tag of $10,000 a week, according to his campaign. Hackett is the first candidate in the race to put up television ads and plans to stay on the air until the April 22 Republican primary.

“A new year has come, and with it has come the time to take our message to the voters,” Hackett said.

Hackett already has contributed $100,000 of his own money to his bid and his campaign declined to say whether financial reports for the end of the year would show even more self-funding.

Another wealthy businessman, Dan Meuser (R), also is running and funding part of his campaign. A mistakenly filed and partially incomplete campaign finance report in early December showed Meuser had loaned his bid $250,000 so far.

Small-business owner Paul Swiderski, conservative activist Don Ely and most recently, optometrist Davis Haire also have filed to run for the Republican nomination.

Freshman Rep. Christopher Carney (D) defeated disgraced Rep. Don Sherwood (R) in 2006. Though the district has voted Republican in recent presidential contests, accusations that the married Sherwood had attempted to choke his girlfriend swung the seat into Democrats’ hands for the first time in 35 years.

— Shira Toeplitz