Obama ad to air in state starting Friday

Need proof that the campaign for president is heating up here in Washington state? Turn on your TV this weekend.

Sen. Barack Obama's campaign announced today it would begin airing ads Friday in Washington and five of the other key post-Super Tuesday states.

The Obama ads are believed to be the first of the 2008 campaign to air locally in Washington state.

The ad that will air here shows clips of Obama greeting voters and features sound bites from one of his stump speeches.

"I'll be a president who finally makes health care affordable to every single American by bringing Democrats and Republicans together," Obama says in the speech. "I'll be a president who ends the tax breaks for companies that ship our jobs overseas, and put a middle-class tax cut into the pockets of working Americans.

"And I'll be a president who ends this war in Iraq and finally brings our troops home. We are one nation, and our time for change has come."

Obama was already airing TV ads in most of the nearly two dozen states that will be holding caucuses or primaries on Tuesday. His campaign reported raising $32 million in January that will help fund the ad blitz.

According to Thursday's announcement, the campaign will now air ads targeting voters in Washington, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Nebraska and Virginia — all states that have caucuses or primaries during the week after Super Tuesday.

Washington's Democratic and Republican party caucuses are Feb. 9.

Ralph Thomas: 360-943-9882 or rthomas@seattletimes.com