Republican U.S. Senate candidate – and, apparently, zombie hunter – Ryan Frazier hits the airwaves today with an ad aimed at setting the former Aurora city councilman apart from a crowded primary field of five candidates as mail ballots are set to drop statewide.

“They just keep coming at us, devouring our freedoms and tax dollars – the Washington elite, the walking deadheads,” an ominous-sounding Frazier says as horror movie images lurch across the screen. “Meddling in the economy, playing politics with immigration – D.C. is filled with takers. No more.”

The screen turns sunny as Frazier walks across the screen and a narrator sings his praises. “Naval intelligence veteran, business leader, outsider, zombie hunter: Ryan Frazier will fight a corrupt system in order to reignite the American spirit.”

The Frazier campaign is spending $100,000 on its initial ad buy, a spokesman said. It begins running statewide on broadcast and cable stations on Monday.

“Ryan Frazier’s TV campaign is different,” campaign spokesman Roger Hudson told The Colorado Statesman. “Cuts through the same old political rhetoric of the other candidates. Frazier’s a conservative, veteran, father and fighter.”

Another Senate primary candidate who claims the same set of adjectives, former state Rep. Jon Keyser, R-Morrison, is increasing his advertising buy this week after rolling out a controversial ad with a modest buy last week, a spokesman said.

The Keyser campaign is spending more than $100,000 on additional cable and digital spots to air an ad that accuses President Barack Obama and Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet of wanting to “give” nuclear weapons to Iran. PolitiFact Colorado, a prominent fact-checking organization, gave Keyser’s charge its “Pants on Fire!” rating last week, calling it “ridiculous” to claim that backers of the Iran nuclear deal wanted to give the country nukes.

The Frazier and Keyser ad buys are dwarfed, however, by Jack Graham, whose campaign is pouring another $250,000 into its buy this week, a spokesman said. That’s on top of $450,000 already spent for a biographical ad introducing Graham, a Fort Collins businessman and former NFL quarterback, to voters.

Candidate Robert Blaha is also on the air with his own attention-getting ad featuring Washington bobbleheads that calls the Colorado Springs businessman a “cure for the congressional blahs.” The ad concludes with the “Blaha Product Guarantee,” the candidate’s pledge that he won’t seek another term if he doesn’t fix the tax system, reduce the deficit and cut illegal immigration in half.

The Blaha campaign has declined to say how much it’s spending on advertising.

The fifth Republican Senate candidate, El Paso County Commissioner Darryl Glenn, hasn’t taken to televisions with his own advertising yet, but the political arm of the powerful Senate Conservatives Fund is spending $50,000 on ads touting Glenn’s conservative cred, The Colorado Independent’s Corey Hutchins reported this weekend. The organization, run by former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, endorsed Glenn late last month and urged supporters to send him contributions. A spokeswoman for the Glenn campaign didn’t respond to an inquiry on Monday morning.

Bennet, who is unopposed for the Democratic nomination in the June 28 primary, has been airing his own ads in heavy rotation statewide since early April. His campaign was sitting on $7.6 million at the end of the first quarter, according to the most recent campaign finance reports. None of the Republican candidates reported more than $1 million on hand.

A spokesman for the Colorado Democratic Party said Frazier’s portrayal of a Washington, D.C., right out of a horror movie was aimed at the right target but misdiagnosed the problem.

“Ryan Frazier is a professional political operative who had to sue to get himself on the ballot, and he wants to make Donald Trump president, despite Trump’s obscene rhetoric and offensive policy agenda,” said Chris Meagher, senior communications advisor for the state Democrats. “Frazier is out-of-touch with Coloradans, and would only add to the dysfunction in Washington.”

Also on Monday, insider Washington publication The Hill dropped Colorado’s U.S. Senate race from its list of the 10 seats most likely to flip in this year’s election. Previously, the contest had hovered hear the bottom of the ranking, with the publication’s analysts noting that the divisive Republican field and Bennet’s head start gave him a big advantage.

– ernest@coloradostatesman.com