The Washington State Democrats have a new YouTube ad attacking Republican gubernatorial candidate Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna.

It's a peculiar hit coming from Democrats, though; they condemn McKenna for proposing big new government expenditures.

The centerpiece of McKenna's campaign so far has been his promise to increase state funding for education based on increased state revenues. "One thing we know about the state budget," the ad quotes McKenna saying in his upbeat campaign pitch, "is that it does grow over time." (We've certainly pointed out this odd strain in McKenna's rap before, namely that his reliance on traditional government growth contradicts his and his party's perpetual sound bite criticizing government growth.)

On the stump, McKenna decries the fact that K-12 funding has dropped from 50 percent to 41 percent of the state budget and that higher ed funding has dropped from 16 percent to eight percent over the last several decades. McKenna wants to restore funding to those higher levels, which would cost $2.1 billion and $2.6 billion, respectively, over the next biennium, the Democrats point out.

Of course, McKenna has not said he wants to make up the difference in the next biennium. McKenna told me the funding erosion has happened over decades—since the 1980s—and he says to restore it will take years. You can find McKenna's formal education plan, which relies on "efficiencies" and cutting state employees, here.

His big pledge is a 50/50 deal with the public, saying that the state will cover fifty percent of the cost of higher ed for students; currently, the state pays about 25 percent. To get there would cost about $1 billion a biennium McKenna told KCTS earlier this month.

The Democrats' slick ad mocks McKenna, asking incredulously: "He's counting on doubling the state budget?"