An independent group that played a major role in running attack ads against several current Democratic senators, former Democratic senators, and former Democratic Senate challengers is jumping into the Oregon Senate race, BlueOregon is reporting.

Kari Chisolm has the story that Americans for Job Security is rolling out its first ads attacking U.S. Senat candidate Jeff Merkley (D-Portland) Tuesday. According to Chisolm, with the group diving into the race with just two weeks until election day, Oregonians are about to see the nastiness of the Senate race taken to a whole new level.

“If you think it's ugly now, just you wait," Chisolm wrote. "It's about to get extremely ugly.”

Various reports link AJS to both insurance and oil companies. And when AJS targets a candidate, it does not hold back. In 2004, the group sent out mailers and ran attacks against U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) on issues ranging from prescription drugs to coal mine jobs. It also has run attack ads on U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.), several former Democratic Senate candidates, and former Sens. John Edwards (D-N.C.) and Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.). The attack ads were run against Wellstone shortly before he died in a plane crash while running for re-election in 2002.

According to SourceWatch, the group is run by Mike Dubke, a former aide to George H.W. Bush’s 1992 re-election campaign.