The full MoveOn.org press release is copied below.

A new 30 second television ad, running in Iowa, Montana and Washington, DC, uses humor to highlight the importance of including the choice of a public health insurance plan in any health care reform legislation. The ad, by MoveOn.org Civic Action, follows an online town hall meeting on the subject Monday night that over 10,000 people participated in – the highest attendance ever recorded by sister organization Moveon.org Political Action for an issue briefing. The ads will run in the home states of the chair and the ranking Republican of the Senate Finance Committee, as well as in Washington, DC, for one week. The public health insurance option has been vigorously opposed by the insurance industry and their allies in Congress.

Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) has recently shown a willingness to support the public health insurance option, while Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) remains dead set against it, despite the fact that a recent poll showed that 56% of Iowans want a public health insurance option.[1] The Iowa results mirror polls that show most Americans believe the choice of a public health insurance plan is key to solving our health care crisis.

The television ad, set in a funeral home, uses humor and shows two funeral directors discussing how President Obama’s health care reform proposal, with its inclusion of the choice of a public health insurance plan, will lower people’s health care costs and let them live longer, therefore putting the funeral directors out of business.

“While our ad uses humor to elevate the importance of the public health insurance option, the point couldn’t be more serious,” said Justin Ruben, Executive Director of MoveOn. “Senators Baucus and Grassley are at the center of the fight for real health care reform. They have a responsibility to stand with the overwhelming majority of Americans who want the choice of a public health insurance plan – but instead, Senator Grassley and Congressional Republicans have been standing with the insurance companies and special interests.”

The ad campaign follows Monday night’s online town hall meeting on the subject. The town hall was hosted jointly by MoveOn.org Political Action and Democracy for America. The town hall, which over 10,000 people attended, was featured Governor Howard Dean explaining the public health insurance option and taking questions from the on line crowd.

You can hear the town hall at: http://pol.moveon.org/deanforum/recording.html

The ad is viewable online here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ms2b57MLqZs

Justin Uebelhor, the organization’s communications director, told the Iowa Independent in an email that the ad would run for at least a week on cable stations in markets across the state and on broadcast stations in Des Moines, and that they are “planning to expand when possible.”

So who’s the big winner from all of this?

My first instinct is to say that this helps Democratic candidates for the Iowa House, who have been proposing to “protect our jobs by cracking down on CEOs who hire illegal immigrants” in television ads, mailings, and other communications for some time.

That these were federal charges and not state charges is unlikely to matter.  Iowans will wake up tomorrow to newspapers that say a CEO has been ‘cracked down on,’ and Democrats’ television ads will begin to resonate even more.

Here are ads from two candidates for Iowa House — Larry Marek and John Beard — that both use the ‘cracking down on CEOs’ line at about the 25-second mark:

Jarad Klein, who is running for the open seat in House District 89 against Democrat Larry Marek, has been on television with a positive, biographical ad for weeks, but his latest ad criticizes his opponent, alleging that Marek is running a “false and negative” campaign.

With a month to go until election day, neither campaign has actually gone very negative so far, but what’s most interesting about Klein’s ad is the end, which features an announcer who says, “Larry Marek.  One more vote for more of the same.  Larry Marek.  Not the change we need.”

That plays very explicitly on Obama’s campaign themes in an effort to tie a Democrat to Sen. John McCain in a district that is somewhat conservative, but where independent voters might lean Obama.

Both Klein and Marek are relatively unknown, so defining Marek as “more of the same” before he has a chance to define himself might just work.  If it does, Klein will have Obama to thank.

Here’s the full script of Klein’s latest TV ad, which is apparently running frequently on cable, transcribed by a resident of House District 89:

What’s behind Larry Marek’s false and negative campaign against Jarad Klein? (”LIES” flashes on screen)

A record of betrayal he’s desperate to hide.

Larry Marek says he’ll work for us in Des Moines, but he’s already pledged his support to liberals who have raised our taxes and increased government spending.

Higher taxes.  More out of control spending.

Larry Marek.  One more vote for more of the same.

Larry Marek.  Not the change we need.

Update: And to add an extra bit of irony to the story, Jarad Klein actually got his start in politics as an intern for President George W. Bush’s 2000 campaign, so Obama’s “more of the same” meme might apply more to him than to his opponent.

The ad, “Take It Back,” focuses on Obama’s decision to refuse all campaign contributions from PACs and Washington lobbyists. Obama also touts his leadership on ethics reform in Congress. “It’s still early in the election season, but we’ve already seen a few issues jump to the forefront — health care, education, energy and the Iraq war, among others,” said Josh Earnest, Obama for America’s Iowa communications director, in a press release. “But one common thread ties all these issues together: the need to bring significant, dynamic change to the ways of Washington. Quite simply, it’s time to take our country back and put it in the hands of regular people again.”

The ad features some clips from Obama’s speech declaring his candidacy in Springfield, Ill., in particular the line confronting the notion that he’s too inexperienced to be president. “I know that I haven’t spent a lot of time learning the ways of Washington,” Obama says. “But, I’ve been there long enough to know that the ways of Washington must change.” The line helps Obama draw a distinct line between himself and campaign rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., who argues her experience in Washington has helped prepare her to lead the country her first day in office. Playing off voters’ current dissatisfaction with the government, Obama is trying to turn his Democratic rivals, who are veterans of D.C. politics, into a negative.Because Obama has taken money from lobbyists registered in his home state of Illinois, he makes it clear that he refuses to take money from registered Washington lobbyists. Although some of the latter have given money to his campaign, Obama has returned it.

As part of his “Take It Back” campaign, Obama also plans to hang signs that say “Not Paid for by PAC or Federal Lobbyist Money” in his campaign offices across Iowa. Furthermore, Obama’s television ads will be accompanied by targeted radio commercials that end with a tag line that says “Paid for by Obama for America, not Washington lobbyists.”