Peters touts middle-class roots in first ads

Rep. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) is launching the first ads of his Senate campaign, positive spots touting his deep middle-class Michigan roots and military service.

{mosads}Peters is in a tight race with former Michigan Secretary of state Terri Lynn Land (R) and isn’t as well-known statewide as his opponent. He has been hammered on the air since the beginning of the year by Americans for Prosperity, the deep-pocketed group backed by the Koch brothers, David and Charles Koch.

He’s responding with ads touting his biography.

“I was raised in an average Michigan middle-class home. Dad was a teacher, Mom was a nurse’s aide. I was able to go to college and earn three degrees going to school at night,” Peters says in one ad.

“Most people don’t know Gary was a Lieutenant Commander in the Navy Reserve and signed up again after 9/11. For Gary it has always been about service,” his wife Colleen says in the other.

The spots will launch this Friday during the University of Michigan and Michigan State University basketball games in the NCAA tournament, and run for seven weeks on television, backed by a seven-figure ad buy.