State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy is about to start a media blitz with $176,000 worth of commercials airing on Baltimore's four television stations, paid for at least in part out of her own pocket.

The ads will start running today, featuring U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings and focusing on her record, WBAL reported Wednesday night. Last week, we confirmed with a campaign aide that commercials involving her staff were filmed last month (during the work day), so expect that to be a component of the pieces that air as well.

The $176,000 ad buy represents a huge influx of cash to the Jessamy campaign, which reported just $38,000 cash on hand as of the last campaign finance report a few weeks ago. WBAL reported that Jessamy is using a personal loan, "evidence of how tight the race might be." Challenger Gregg Bernstein had raised nearly $220,000 as of the last report.

Asked for comment by The Sun on Wednesday about when the commercials would air and where Jessamy found the cash, campaign spokeswoman Marilyn Harris-Davis declined to answer a reporter's questions.

Here's how the Bernstein campaign spun Jessamy's ad buy in an e-mail to supporters: "[Jessamy] has the highest salary of any elected official in the state, which presumably has enabled her to make this personal expenditure. It appears that after fifteen years on the job, she has not garnered enough support from the community to run an effective campaign and now must make this attempt to buy the election."