Salas, Valadao Trade Gas Tax Charges as TV Ad War Launches – GV Wire [Video]

Expect thousands of TV ads in the David Valadao-Rudy Salas congressional campaign race. Both sides launched today.

Valadao, R-Hanford, is the incumbent congressman. Election analysts have called his Congressional District 22 race versus state Assemblyman Salas, D-Bakersfield, one of the tightest in the country.

Each side released a new television ad making opposing claims regarding Salas supporting the gas tax.

“In Sacramento, Salas voted with the radical environmentalist to increase the price of gas 73 cents a gallon,” Valadao’s spot says.

“I was the only Assembly Democrat to vote no on raising the gas tax,” Salas narrates in his own ad.  The text on the screen cites a Sacramento Bee headline that Salas was “stripped of committee chairmanship after voting against gas tax increase.”

Cook Political Report, FiveThirtyEight, and Sabato’s Crystal Ball — three leading election predictors — call the race a “toss-up.”

Who is Telling the Truth?

The truth? It depends on …