Click here to watch "Say No To Lunsford."

Businessman Greg Fischer fired the first salvo against health care executive Bruce Lunsford late last month, in what has become an increasingly tense race for the Kentucky Democratic Senate nomination.

Fischer's attack ad features actress Dale Carter Cooper making accusations about Lunsford's tenure at a nursing home business, Vencor. "He's the last person in the world I'd want in the Senate," Cooper says of Lunsford, charging that "his business practices are totally unethical." She accuses Lunsford of "evicting elderly people from nursing homes," leaving them "out in the cold" with "no place to go, no person to appeal to." The ad ends with this definitive message appearing on screen: "Say no to Bruce Lunsford."

The spot immediately drew a response from the Lunsford campaign, with spokesman Achim Bergmann telling the Louisville Courier-Journal, "I've been doing political campaigns for 16 years and I've never seen anything like it before." Fischer campaign spokeswoman Kim Geveden defended the ad in a statement, claiming that Lunsford's "business and political history are an issue in this campaign." But other Bluegrass State Democrats would rather see such vitriol aimed at the incumbent, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R). Four prominent local party leaders sent Fischer a letter last week requesting that he pull the ad.

Lunsford's camp responded with its own ad, "Truth," a few days after Fischer's ad appeared. Citing an op-ed from the Paducah Sun, an announcer calls Fischer's ad "unfair and inaccurate," and defends Vencor's record, claiming: "When Congress cut Medicare, many health care companies folded. But Lunsford's company survived and today employs over 50,000 people." Lunsford appears on screen at the end, scolding Fischer and appealing to Democrats for unity in the primary: "I approve this message because misleading attacks won't change Washington. Only working together will."

So what prompted Fischer to go negative? According to the Courier-Journal, he has struggled just to gain name recognition among voters, and he trailed Lunsford by 38 points in a recent poll.

Both candidates have also released positive ads within the last week. Lunsford, in "Support," touts his endorsements from various unions and politicians. In "The Truth," Fischer talks about his upbringing and repeats his tagline from previous ads: "I have never been a politician, but I have always been a public servant."