In his first TV ad spot, state Senate candidate Matt Smith features his wife and children while talking about cleaning up the state capital. He said that teaching his kids how to tidy up doesn’t always work, but promises that he will if elected.

The ad opens with a shot of the candidate and his family playing on the floor of their home.

“I’m Matt Smith. Eileen and I teach our kids to clean up,” he says. “Sometimes it works better than others.”

The video shows two of his children putting toys away in a basket, while a third crawls away teddy bear in tow.

“I’m also working to clean up another place: Harrisburg.”

Smith vows in the ad to reduce the legislature’s size and cut their budget by 20 percent, saying Harrisburg can do better.

“And that starts by not doing the same old things, the same old way. That’s how you build the future, and that’s how you build it here,” he says.

The ad is running on cable across the district, and a GOP source said the buy is around $50,000 and will run over the next two weeks.

The ad comes on the heels of a polling memo released by the Smith campaign last week showing the Democrat leading his Republican opponent Raja 54 percent to 38 percent in SD-37 – a district that favors a generic Republican on the ballot by a few points.

The two are facing off to replace recently retired Sen. John Pippy (R-Allegheny) in a district comprising parts of Allegheny and Washington counties.

For his part, Raja has been on TV all week with negative ads aimed at painting Smith as a liberal Harrisburg insider.

Raja also makes the claim that Smith has voted for $1M in new taxes for every day he’s been in office.

Raja Campaign Manager Jennifer Hass echoed their commercial’s claims that Smith cannot shake his liberal record.

“The fact is Matt Smith hasn’t cleaned up Harrisburg in his over 5 years there,” Hass said.

“Instead he’s voted for $2.4 billion in higher taxes, an astounding $1 million for every day he’s been in office, as well as $5 billion in increased spending. The more voters learn about Matt Smith, the less they like him.”

Raja’s campaign has not responded to multiple requests by PoliticsPA for a copy of their candidate’s ad, however.