In her initial re-election advertising campaign, Democratic U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar is featuring a veteran and car dealers spending glowingly of the help she provided during her time in office.

The ads are the first of her campaign, which is spending more than $300,000 to air them statewide.

"I remain a Republican today. However, I will always support Senator Klobuchar. Not just because she got the dealership for us, but because I really believe in her as a public servant," says Paul Walser, an prominent auto dealer who has donated at least $150,000 to Republican campaigns and causes in the past decade.

The spots focus less on the big issues of the day and more on focused, specific work the senator has done in keeping with her profile of working on issues where Republicans and Democrats can agree.

Polls, from the Star Tribune and other organizations, show Minnesotans are buying the pitch -- she has had double-digit leads over Republican challenger Kurt Bills in all surveys, including one conducted for the Bills campaign.

According to the Star Tribune poll released on Thursday, Klobuchar, like many other Democrats, polls far stronger with women than she does with men. The two ads she started airing on Sunday feature men -- a veteran and auto dealers -- she has helped, perhaps seeking to shore up her male vote.

The Klobuchar ads are the first focused on the U.S. Senate race to appear on Minnesota television. The relatively late timing -- recent Minnesota Senate races were littered with television ads by summer -- is owed in large part to Klobuchar's sizable lead and the lack of national interest in the race.

Earlier this week, Mike Osskopp, Bills' campaign manager, said he felt it was too early to start running ads but that the campaign had spots taped and ready to run when the time comes.

Here are the ads Minnesotans will soon begin seeing during their TV viewing:

Here is the second ad:

Ad links updated 10/7