LD8 Democrats Gina LaPlaca and Mark Natale are up on cable TV in the Burlington-based battleground county with a significant ad buy.

The first of two ads features attorney LaPlaca, a Democratic candidate for the assembly, on guns. The ad specifically targets Republican Sheriff Jean Stanfield.

The second features her running mate going after Stanfield running mate Assemblyman Ryan Peters (R-8), on his support for President Donald J. Trump’s tax plan and guns.

The candidates from both parties are running in one of the state’s key legislative battleground contests, and arguably the front-line of where Democrats hope to ad seats to their assembly super majority.

Peters is running with Stanfield, who defeated incumbent Assemblyman Joe Howarth (R-8), Peters’s former running mate and ally who ran afoul of the former Navy SEAL amid the fallout caused by state Senator Dawn Addiego’s party switch from Republican to Democrat.

The lurch in which they found themselves caused a GOP Primary, which Peters and Stanfield handily won, despite Howarth’s efforts to say Peters did not sufficiently support Trump.

Now Democrats are highlighting the Republican’s support for the controversial GOP president on policy, and doubling down by specifically highlighting Stanfield’s pro-gun position. Read Peters’s counter offensive here.