After announcing he was including a “public option” for government-run health insurance in the Senate’s health insurance overhaul bill, Nevada Sen. Harry Reid won a hearty round of accolades from progressive groups.

Now, one of the most prominent, MoveOn.org is following that up with a round of newspaper ads in Nevada and Washington D.C. lauding Reid for his “courageous leadership.”

“We’re standing with you in the fight for real health care reform with the choice of a public health insurance option,” the full page ad will read. MoveOn send a note to is e-mail list Thursday asking backers to ad their names to those expressing thanks in the ad.

The support from MoveOn comes as Reid faces a tough re-election battle, with national Republicans gunning for his seat in 2010. And that stamp of approval could help him shore up support from the more liberal portion of the Democratic base, a constituency that has often been suspicious of the majority leader in the past.

NRSC spokesman Brian Walsh, in turn, has accused Reid of paying “more attention to the liberal special interests in Washington than to the interests of his constituents in Nevada.”

MoveOn.org did not respond to a call for comment on details of the ad purchase.

CQ Politics rates the general election contest Leans Democratic.