To be honest, the race for the 3rd Congressional District until now has lacked luster. I know that's cliche, but it's true, save for the occasional whisper campaigns that usually don't amount to anything printable... 

I've interviewed or talked with most of the candidates and attended a recent debate. Maybe it's because most of the other Congressional races I've covered were in the 1st Congressional District (Think Wilson-Madrid, most recently) but this one -- the Democratic primary in particular -- needed something to get  it off the ground.

Developer Don Wiviott's ad (click here to watch) certainly did that. Released over the weekend, it got the Ben Ray Lujan campaign animated, to say the least. 

The campaign has already put out information in response to the ad. 

"Ben Ray Luján was attacked in a false and misleading television advertisement by multimillionaire developer Don Wiviott. Don's desperate and untrue attacks have no place in a Democratic primary," campaign manager Carlos Trujillo said in a statement.

Among the false things in the Wiviott ad, according to Lujan's campaign:

Lujan, a Public Regulation Commissioner, says he wasn't a blackjack dealer in Las Vegas, as the ad claims. He dealt cards instead at Pojoaque Pueblo.  (Update, 8:43 p.m.: Lujan's campaign said today he also was a dealer in Lake Tahoe, not Las Vegas, in the 1990s. See Tuesday's New Mexican for more information.)

Lujan did miss "a number" of Telehealth Commission meetings, but that's because they coincided with meetings of the PRC. The ad claims Lujan missed 13 of 14 recent meetings.

Lujan does show up for work, contrary to the line in the 30-second ad that says "Lujan Jr. doesn' t even show up." His camp says he has attended 97 percent of PRC meetings since he was elected.

And so it goes. Expect a bigger response from Lujan's campaign in the coming days.

Did I mention the primary is two weeks from tomorrow? 

On a related note, see all of our candidate interviews in one place on our new elections page.