Republican Senate candidate Richard Douglas began airing a statewide radio advertisement on Thursday -- the first in the GOP primary -- suggesting that it's "time to wake Congress up."
Referring to Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin as "Rip Van Cardin," the spot argues that the first-term incumbent has been inattentive to national and local issues, including the rising price of gasoline and unemployment. The ads are running in Baltimore and elsewhere in the state.
"Honey, did you see where gas prices could go to $6?" a man asks in the ad.
"Shhhhhhhh," his wife says as snoring can be heard in the background, "you'll wake Ben Cardin."
Douglas is running against nine other Republican in the April 3 GOP primary, including former Secret Service Agent Dan Bongino. Whoever wins the nomination will have an uphill fight in overwhelmingly blue Maryland. Cardin, who has a primary challenge of his own, began a series of television advertisements this week.