Rick Scott’s latest ad compares Bill Nelson to a broke down Ford Pinto

Sen. Bill Nelson is likened to a busted old Ford Pinto in a new TV ad from Gov. Rick Scott that adds to an spending onslaught now approaching $20 million.

The attack spot plays on the career politician theme Republican Scott is employing against Democrat Nelson and uses the car to strike at the narrative.

"In 1978, the Ford Pinto was the best-selling small car in America, gas was 63 cents a gallon and Bill Nelson was elected to Congress," a narrator says. "Forty years later, a lot of things changed, but Bill Nelson is still in Washington, still collecting a paycheck."

It's backed by $2.7 million and will run statewide, as well as online, according to the campaign, bringing Scott's ad spending (which includes a super PAC) to about $20 million.

The ad asserts Nelson has done little since being elected to Congress (he served in the House for 12 years, then went back to Florida before joining the Senate in 2001) besides raising taxes, a point the ad copies from past false ads against the Democrat.

It stretches time as well, referring to "40 years later" then ending by saying Nelson has been in Washington "a half century."

Yet the ad should continue to concern Nelson and Democrats, serving as the latest example of Scott's scorched earth campaign against the three-term Democrat.

Backstory: How Rick Scott is grabbing Bill Nelson's campaign strategy.

Nelson is 75; Scott is 65.