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The North Carolina Democratic Party says it has gone on television today with an ad titled "GOP War on Women." The ad features former state party chairwoman (and Jim Hunt campaign manager) Betty McCain, Gov. Bev Perdue, and Reps. Earline Parmon and Deborah Ross talking about cuts to the budget and other pieces of legislation they see as being anti-woman.

"Really, the GOP has declared war on women," McCain says to begin the commercial. The commercial references the abortion fight from this summer but goes on to reference cuts to Medicaid and other state budget issues as well.

A spokesman for the party would not say how large the buy is -- which will prompt Republicans to speculate that it's not all that big -- but did say it is not airing in Greensboro. Update: The ad is airing in the Charlotte and Raleigh markets.

The ad appears to be cut down from two videos the party commissioned earlier this summer, one talking about the redistricting process' affect on female representation (link) and and other talking about the budget and policy themes in the current commercial (link). Those longer videos feature Rep. Alma Adams, of Greensboro, who is not in the TV spot. Update: A full version of the video is here (link).

One other interesting note: the "bad guy" clips in the ad -- those intentionally-off shots of the opponents you see in many campaign ads -- are of House Speaker Thom Tillis and House Majority Leader Paul "Skip" Stam. Neither Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger nor any other GOP senator shows up in the commercial. That makes me wonder if Democrats see more of an opportunity to make headway in House elections this year, think the House has been the more "anti-woman" or they just didn't have a good grainy picture of Berger. 

Update: One Republican opperative suggests on Twitter (link) that the ad is aimed at bolstering President Barack Obama's sagging poll numbers among women (link). I'm not sure how much water that holds, since the ad doens't mention national politics or Obama.

Update: NC Republican Party spokesman Rob Lockwood e-mails with this response:  "Governor Perdue and North Carolina Democrats have a failed economic record. With unemployment still above 10.4% in North Carolina, the only thing Perdue and the Democrats can do is hope divert attention away from their failures. This "ad" is a pathetic attempt to fundraise off of fear and divide people. These wild claims advocated by Perdue and others prove that they care only about politics, not about policies that would help North Carolina get back to work."

Click on the player below to see the 1 minute ad.