Most of us are thoroughly disgusted with TV ad upon TV ad as candidates tell us what monsters their opponents are in the coming Nov. 8 General Election.

To hear these candidates tell it, their opponents are the scum of the Earth, unfit to inhabit our country, in fact, if they are elected the country is going down the tubes.

Thank God for mute buttons on our TVs. During election season, I have taken to recording programs I want to watch so I can fast forward through the glut of political commercials. Some commercials are back-to-back with one candidate saying one thing and his or her opponent saying the opposite. Were it not so serious, it’s almost laughable. How gullible do they think we are?

It’s not just TV either. There’s no escaping it. Each day’s mail has four or five political fliers telling me what a lousy candidate his or her opponent is.

Between the two candidates in the highly competitive 7th Congressional District (all of Carbon, Northampton and Lehigh counties and several West End municipalities in Monroe County), they have raised nearly $9 million, making it the most expensive election among the 17 Congressional districts in the state.

The most recent poll results show that Democrat incumbent Susan Wild and Republican challenger Lisa Scheller are in a dead heat, and most believe that Carbon County, whose voters are new to the district, could be the deciding factor. Carbon’s Republicans, with 21,586 registered voters as of Oct. 3 lead Democrats, who have 15,504, a difference of 6,082. Published reports in another area newspaper that registered Republicans outnumber registered Democrats 3 to 1 are in accurate.

Districtwide, Democrats hold a lead of 38,715 - 228,163-189,448, with Democrats leading in voter registration in Lehigh and Northampton counties, while Republicans, in addition to Carbon, also lead in the Monroe section of the district.

Since we Pennsylvanians have two major statewide races that also have produced thousands of TV ads and ads on our social media feeds, it just becomes dizzying and overwhelming to the point where my brain goes on zonk, and I don’t pay attention to any of them. Aside from that, I have already voted via mail-in ballot, so any political ads now are just noise.

In the governor’s race, Democrat Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania’s attorney general, is heavily outspending Republican State Sen. Doug Mastriano, with most of the ads branding the Franklin County politician as “too extreme” for Pennsylvania. Out-of-state super political action committees (PACs) accuse Shapiro of being a liberal socialist who is out to destroy the nation’s foundations.

With a week left to go in the campaign, Shapiro has spent nearly $45 million, a record for gubernatorial campaigns in the state. Mastriano, on the other hand, has spent less than $1 million, almost none of it on mainstream TV advertising. Most of the ads urging a vote for Mastriano have come from out-of-state PAC contributors.

In the race for U.S. Senate between Democrat John Fetterman and Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz, spending is also off the charts, with a lot of money coming from out-of-state PACs because the outcome of the Pennsylvania election could determine which party controls the U.S. Senate for the next two years.

Fetterman raised $22 million for the quarter ended Sept. 30, while Oz raised $9 million and loaned his campaign $7 million from his own funds. In all, Oz has contributed $21 million of his own money in an attempt to win the seat being vacated by Republican Pat Toomey of Lehigh County, who chose not to seek re-election, but he endorses Oz.

We wonder why there is so much negative political advertising. According to the political analysts I spoke to it’s because it works. Ads that tear down opponents and their records, question their ethics and insist that they would make terrible officeholders are much more successful than ads that solely recount a candidate’s qualifications and achievements.

Inconsequential ads and gimmicks such as Fetterman’s hiring of reality TV personality Snooki to encourage Oz to return to New Jersey where he has lived for decades before making a move to Pennsylvania to run for office sometimes are more effective than any other kind of advertising.

In the end, I believe I speak for many of us who just want it to stop. I can’t wait until Nov. 9 when we don’t have to see any more political ads until 2023. The good news is that most of the races in ’23 will be for local offices which do not produce much TV advertising and just a few fliers.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com