These days, Democrats don’t even need to be a Members of the House to be pawns of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

Republican David McKinley’s latest television ad in his race against Democrat Mike Oliverio in the battleground 1st district lays out the key points of the “Pelosi-Oliverio agenda.” McKinley’s ad lists cap-and-trade, higher taxes and more spending among the key items on that agenda.

Of course, Oliverio has never actually voted on any of Pelosi’s key policy pieces such as the cap-and-trade bill. That’s because Oliverio is a member of the West Virginia Senate. He won the Democratic nomination in May after beating longtime Rep. Alan Mollohan in the primary.

But Republicans have had no qualms about making Pelosi an issue in open-seat races this cycle as they look to takeover the House and take away Pelosi’s gavel.

“The Pelosi-Oliverio team. Bad for West Virginia jobs,” states the ad, which is running in the Wheeling and Parkersburg media markets. “Had enough of Pelosi? David McKinley for Congress.”

On Monday, Oliverio’s campaign seemed more concerned about an upcoming ad from the conservative Iowa-based America Future Fund. Oliverio spokesman Randy Coleman sent out a release criticizing the group for reserving $325,000 of TV time in the district.

“We are confident that West Virginia voters are independent enough to take a close look at the candidates themselves and will not be influenced by a national agenda,” Coleman said in the release. “But it is certainly wrong that an out-of-state group that is famous for distorting facts and tearing down candidates is going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to buy the election.”