As Election Day gets closer, we take a look at one legislative race in South Jersey that's heating up.

The battle for a state Senate seat in District three, which spans parts of Gloucester, Cumberland and Salem counties.

That's where Republican incumbent Ed Durr, the truck driver who became a firebrand two years ago after knocking off former Democratic state Senate President Stephen Sweeney, is defending his seat against Democrat John Burns, a cellie who represented the district in the Assembly for two decades.

A senior political correspondent David Kruse, reports the smear campaigns are ramping up.

Here's an adult concept to keep John Burns atchley out of office and away from our kids.

They don't call it silly season for nothing.

Former Assemblyman John Burns Kelly is as much a porn producer as Senator Ed Dur is an Uber driver.

But that has not stopped the dirt campaign from posting this video.

A nod, you see, to the conservative leanings of some voters in the third District, which Durr hopes to tap into to blunt misogyny charges against the senator.

I think what really got us started were some of these outrageous things that Ed had said on his social media about abortion, about women keeping their legs shut, all this kind of stuff that really is beyond the pale.

And Democrats feel that they've got a real albatross here, that they can hang around the necks of other Republicans and that it's not defensible.

And in fact, there's probably some credibility to that because other Republicans in South Jersey have run away from those statements.

Yeah, they did.

This statement from Republican candidates in the fourth and eighth districts in South Jersey is pretty strong.

The social media posts by Senator Ed Derry were offensive and unexamined available.

It says They don't represent us or what we believe in any way.

Durr, who shocked the South Jersey political establishment when he knocked out then Senate President Stephen Sweeney in 2021, has become unavailable for interviews now, we're told.

But he's still raising money on the same site that hosted the ad attacking bears a jelly.

Special interest groups are going to come for my seat.

They're going to spend millions to help the Democrats.

But you can stop that by contributing to that.

Well, my my observation is that after spending after he having spent two years in Steve Sweeney's seat and having delivered zero for this district in the way of economic, economic programs, money, things of that nature, that those seats might as well been empty.

So I guess there's not much for him to talk about other than what he's shows and to talk about.

After you, pollster Dan Cassino found when Dirt and other Republicans talk about parental control in schools, it resonates with independent voters.

But when parental control is defined, independents tend to stick with Dems.

Parental control is very much we call a dog whistle.

That is, if I talk about parental control, people on my side, if I'm Republican, know exactly what I'm talking about.

They're talking about taking content about sexuality out of schools.

They're talking about what they refer to as woke history classes.

So they know we're talking about.

However, as research on destroy messages has shown that once voters figure out what the dog whistle is about, then they stop supporting it.

So there's plenty of voters say, Yeah, I like the idea of parental control.

But you say, well, we're going to take books about old gay people out of the Christian schools, like, Oh, I don't want that.

I guess it could matter to the same people that are really concerned with parental notification in schools.

Right.

This could personalize that issue.

It could make that issue matter and resonate in that district.

The bottom line in this election is turnout.

Cassino says voters, especially independents, tend to stay home when a major seat isn't up at the top of the ticket.

So it's unclear whether or not sex in this race will arouse voters enough to actually get them to come out to the polls.

I'm David Cruz, NJ Spotlight News.