Former state GOP Chairman Sandy Treadwell went up with his 11th TV ad of his campaign for the 20th district seat on Wednesday, but it was the first to directly attack his opponent, freshman Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand (D).

Gillibrand responded with an ad of her own that also began airing Wednesday.

Treadwell’s ad, which keys off the recent Wall Street financial crisis, hits Gillibrand for her opposition to making the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 permanent.

“Everyone knows the economy is hurting,” the narrator in the ad says. “The only one who doesn’t get it is Kirsten Gillibrand.”

Quoting a Heritage Foundation study, Treadwell’s ad says that Gillibrand’s position on the tax cut will cost each family in the district $2,967.

“Families are hurting — and Kirsten Gillibrand wants to raise taxes?” the narrator concludes.

The ad, produced by DMM, a Republican media firm, features a photo of a woman and two children who look sad. The same photo appears in a DMM-produced ad that is running for Chris Lee, the Republican nominee in New York’s 26th district race.

In Gillibrand’s ad, the Congresswoman speaks directly to the camera and chides Treadwell for running “a false, negative campaign” that doesn’t offer solutions for the Upstate district.

“Now rest assured, Sandy’s personal attacks don’t hurt me,” Gillibrand says. “I expected it. But they do hurt the people of New York who deserve solutions.”

The Gillibrand-Treadwell race is expected to be one of the most expensive in the country. Gillibrand, a fundraising machine, had collected more than $4 million through Aug. 20 and had $1.79 million in the bank. Treadwell, who is personally wealthy, had raised $3.5 million through Aug. 20, including $2.6 million from his own pocket, and banked $1.06 million.

One Day After Bad Poll, Lee Has New Attack Ad

One day after the release of a Democratic poll showing him trailing by 10 points in the race to replace retiring Rep. Tom Reynolds (R), businessman Chris Lee (R) began airing a TV ad Wednesday attacking the Democratic nominee for her desire to end the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003.

“Liberal trial lawyer Alice Kryzan (D) by the numbers,” a narrator says at the beginning of the ad. Quoting a study by the conservative Heritage Foundation, the ad goes on to say that the repeal of the tax cuts would cost each 26th district family $2,887 and rob New York of 57,037 jobs.

“We can’t afford the failed liberal policies of the past,” the narrator concludes. “Alice Kryzan, she’d do a number on the economy.”

The ad, produced by DMM, a Republican media firm, features a photo of a woman and two children who look sad — the same photo appears in a DMM-produced ad that is running for Sandy Treadwell, the Republican nominee in New York’s 20th district race.

Although the western New York district has more enrolled Republicans than Democrats, national Democrats are making a play for Reynolds’ seat, and have been touting a poll that was released Tuesday that showed Kryzan leading Lee 39 percent to 29 percent.