Sherrod Brown Changes Tone In Emotional New Ad Inspired By Fatal Ohio Bus Crash

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) released a new ad Tuesday telling the emotional tale of a young member of the Bluffton University baseball team who, along with six others, was killed in a bus accident in 2007.

The ad features an on-camera interview with John Betts, who prompted Brown to work on the passage of a motor coach safety law after his son David died in the crash. The law, passed earlier this year, includes greater safety measures in motor coaches and better training for drivers.

"At David's funeral, I vowed that something good would come of this, and thanks to Sherrod Brown it has," Betts says in the ad. “Sherrod Brown brought both Republicans and Democrats together to get a bill passed that had not been passed in 50 years."

The commercial is a considerable shift from the negative attack ads that have dominated most of the 2012 election cycle, including the Senate race in Ohio, where Brown is running against Republican Josh Mandel. Earlier on Tuesday, Crossroads GPS, the conservative advocacy group backed by Karl Rove, launched a new spot attacking Brown over his support for President Barack Obama's health care law. Outside groups aligned with Mandel, such as Crossroads GPS and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, had spent a combined total of $15 million against Brown as of last month, with another $6.7 million planned before November.