Iowa Democrats wasted no time in attacking the record of former Gov. Terry Branstad, releasing a new Web ad Wednesday focusing on 80s pop culture and the four-term governor’s record on taxes and spending.

Branstad filed paperwork for a gubernatorial exploratory committee Wednesday morning.

The ad compares Branstad’s tenure to other things from the 80s “that we would never want to bring back today,” Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Michael Kiernan said in a release announcing the ad.

For more than a month, Iowa Democrats have treated Branstad like an already announced candidate. When a group trying to convince Branstad to enter the race launched a statewide radio advertisement, the IDP issued a point-by-point counter attack it called a “corrected version of the misleading radio ad.”

The party has also included Branstad on a Web site dedicated to attacking the statements and records of Republican gubernatorial hopefuls called IowaKnowsBetter.com.

“This ad is very lighthearted — sometimes a sense of humor is the best way to get a message across, and humor is very much called for in this case,” he said.

Iowa Democratic Party officials have not made a decision whether to air the spot on broadcast television at this time.