By Jonathan Allen, CQ Staff

A direct-mail advertisement sent to Virginia voters this week features a picture of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama next to this blow-up quotation from violent Vietnam-era radical William Ayers: “I don’t regret setting bombs. I feel we didn’t do enough.”

The quotation, attributed to Ayers in finer print, appears above the Weatherman leader’s mug shot on the top half of the cover of the four-page glossy mailer.

The bottom half reads “This is the story of William Ayers . . . Terrorist. Radical. Friend of Obama.”

An official at the Republican Party of Virginia, which paid for the mailer, insists the GOP is not trying to portray Obama as a terrorist.

“The issue is his judgment and his values,” state party spokesman Gerry Scimeca said. “Of course, we’re not saying Obama’s a terrorist or condones violence.”

The same mailer has been sent out by state Republican parties in other battleground states and has drawn the ire of Democrats.

“In 2000, John McCain said he wouldn’t ‘take the low road to the highest office in the land,’” said Clark Stevens, spokesman for Obama’s Virginia operation. “But eight years later, he’s running one of the most dishonorable, dishonest campaigns we’ve ever seen. Today, the Republicans released yet another false mailer, designed to distract voters from the pressing issues they are facing. It is clear that the McCain campaign and Republicans in Virginia would rather push discredited attacks than make the case to voters why continuing President Bush’s economic policies for another four years is good for working families in the commonwealth.”

If recent polls are accurate, Obama is poised to become the first Democrat to win Virginia’s electoral votes since Lyndon Johnson did in 1964. The average of polls reported by RealClear Politics pegs Obama’s advantage at seven percentage points, though the most recent poll, by Mason-Dixon polling for NBC, has Obama’s edge at two points, which is well within the four-point margin of error.

The harsh tone of the mailer, including large-print warnings that “Obama Has Close Ties to Domestic Terrorist” and “ Barack Obama . Not Who You Think He Is,” is indicative of the emphasis Republicans around the country — including GOP presidential nominee John McCain — are placing on a relationship between Obama and Ayers to halt Obama’s apparent momentum.

Though they have been unable to demonstrate ties between Obama and Ayers that go deeper than serving on boards together and Ayers hosting a political event for Obama early in his career, Republicans believe the relationship raises legitimate questions about Obama’s judgment and his philosophy.

Those are the questions Scimeca says the Virginia GOP mailer is aimed at highlighting.

“The mail piece is factually accurate. If people get the impression that we are saying that [Obama] endorses terrorism or violence, then they’re missing the point,” he said. “The mail piece is very strong because it’s got to let people know that Bill Ayers isn’t just another run-of-the-mill San Francisco liberal . . . He’s somebody that people should take very seriously.”