Harry Reid is beginning to dip into his $8.7 million campaign war chest, airing two new television ads starting Friday to reintroduce the increasingly unpopular Senate majority leader to Nevada voters.

The ads, entitled “Nevada Jobs” and “Hard Work,” emphasize Reid’s Nevada roots and his ability to use his clout in the Senate to help his homestate. The tag line in both: “Determination that makes a difference.”

The Reid campaign noted in a release announcing the ad launch that “approximately one third of all registered voters” in Nevada are new to the state since Reid’s last election in 2004 and framed the ads an introduction for those new voters.

Recent polls show that Reid’s problem is not that he is not well-known, but that what Nevada residents know of the four-term incumbent, a majority of them don’t like.