What do you get when you combine a run for state Senate, a position in John McCain's presidential campaign and a day-job as commissioner of Westmoreland County?

Too much for Kim Ward to do, according to the campaign for state Senate candidate Tony Bompiani. On Tuesday, it accused Ward, who became county commissioner 10 months ago, of neglecting her duties and constituents while seeking higher office in the 39th Senatorial District.

"In those 10 short months, Commissioner Ward has not only lost full-time focus on the people of Westmoreland County by entering the race for state Senate," a campaign spokesman told reporters on a conference call, "but now she has shouldered even more distractions by recently taking on more responsibilities as the acting regional director of the McCain-Palin campaign and active member of the McCain-Palin Truth Squad.

"That has our campaign begging the question: 'Whose interest does Commissioner Ward have at heart?" the spokesman asked.

Ward defended her record as county commissioner and shot back at Bombpiani that public officials must "multi-task."

"I appreciate my opponents concern for how I manage my time, but just like many working class families and parents of children, I have always successfully fulfilled many responsibilities at once," Ward said in a statement released by her campaign. "Perhaps my opponent needs to be reminded of the words of his very own presidential nominee, Senator Obama -- 'If you can't multi-task, you shouldn't be president.'"

It's a sharply pointed back-and-forth between the two campaigns as they grapple with a race expected to be tight and considered by Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee one of its best opportunities for a pick-up.

Ward emerged as a state Senate candidate after state Sen. Bob Regola (R-Westmoreland County) unexpectedly ended his campaign in early August. Local GOP officials said at the time she was the only person whose name recognition and campaign prowess would give Republicans a chance against Bompiani so soon before the election.

But it's her political prowess that has Bompiani's campaign saying she's less a public official and more a political operative using the system for personal gain. In particular, it says Ward is exploiting her position as McCain's regional campaign manager as a platform for her own campaign.

She has promoted her candidacy at several McCain events while she should have been working for constituents, the campaign said.

"We have from the very beginning accepted her position to run for state Senate even after serving only eight months as county commissioner, but her duties as regional director for Senator McCain and member for the McCain-Palin Truth Squad need to stop," the statement said. "We respect that it is a great honor to represent a hero like Senator McCain, but using his historic campaign for person gain is not beneficial to the people of Westmoreland County."

It asked her to step down from McCain's campaign.

But Ward, who considers herself both strongly fiscally and socially conservative, said Bompiani is trying to distract voters from his history of raising taxes and repeatedly linked him to whom she identified as his "chief proponent," Gov Ed Rendell. The governor's popularity is not nearly as high in southwest Pennsylvania as it is in other parts of the state, particularly the southeast.

"Tony Bompiani has a proven track record of raising taxes and mortgaging our children's future through massive borrowing," she said. "Governor Rendell also has a track record of raising taxes and mortgaging our children's future through massive borrowing."