MACON, Ga. - Voters from both parties here say they're disappointed in the tit-for-tat attack ads being exchanged by the campaigns of Democratic Rep. Jim Marshall and his Republican challenger, former Rep. Mac Collins, in the battle over middle Georgia's 8th Congressional District.

While the claims made in the ads have sometimes been technically accurate, each candidate has mischaracterized or exaggerated the other's positions, a fact that isn't lost on those who will ultimately decide who represents them in Congress for the next two years.

"It's all half-truths, spinning, lying," said Leonard Sletto, an Air Force civil service retiree, while taking in a high school football game Friday night in Warner Robins, a military town that's home to the district's main economic engine, Robins Air Force Base.

The race is seen by both parties as critical in the fight over control of Congress. Republicans, who say it represents one of their best opportunities to knock off a sitting Democrat, took the offensive first, trying to undermine Marshall's reputation as a conservative Democrat who bucks his party as often as he supports it.

The National Republican Congressional Committee and a California group called the Economic Freedom Fund have been particularly aggressive, buying a flurry of television ads, mailers and recorded telephone messages casting Marshall as a liberal who "turned his back" on Georgia.

Collins, whose ads initially focused on his blue-collar background as a trucking company operator, more recently ran ads saying Marshall "let us down." In a typical television spot, Collins says Marshall "joined his liberal leader Nancy Pelosi and voted to waste our tax dollars printing election ballots in Spanish."

"Muchas gracias, Senor Jim Marshall," the ad concludes.

Marshall - whose ads had not mentioned the challenger until Collins aired his attacks - responded with television spots defending his record and accusing Collins of spreading "flat-out lies." He also took a shot at Collins, accusing the Republican of supporting amnesty for illegal immigrants, citing a speech in which Collins said he would allow some employed illegal immigrants to stay in the United States for up to two years before being deported.

"That's amnesty, Senor Mac," the narrator quips.

Collins, who gave up his congressional seat for an unsuccessful Senate bid in 2004, wouldn't comment on the outside groups that have attacked Marshall. And he denied that he's running a negative campaign, saying he is simply pointing out differences between the candidates.

"If you don't do a contrast, people have no idea why they should look at either candidate," he said.

Collins' ad on Spanish-language ballots, for example, is a reference to Marshall's vote this summer supporting the renewal of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which among other things calls for some jurisdictions to print ballots in foreign languages.

Marshall supported the measure, but so did an overwhelming majority of Republicans. The extension passed the Senate unanimously and cleared the House with a 390-33 vote. President Bush signed it shortly thereafter.

Collins said he would have opposed its renewal.

In other ads, the NRCC charged that Marshall opposed the creation of medical savings accounts aimed at cutting health care costs. But Marshall has consistently supported such accounts, and his campaign claimed a victory last month when it said it successfully lobbied to get the ad taken off the air. The NRCC said it simply changed out the ad as scheduled.

Collins also has accused Marshall of supporting food stamps for illegal immigrants, an allegation that Marshall calls a "flat-out lie."

"You cannot permit somebody to put something on the air that attacks you falsely and just leave it there unanswered," Marshall said. "You have to respond."

Marshall, a Vietnam War veteran first elected to Congress in 2002, defended his characterization of Collins' immigration position as amnesty. Marshall said he opposes Collins' proposal for a temporary worker program, arguing that it would encourage more immigrants to enter the country.

Collins' spokesman Bill Hagan said the Republican does support a temporary program with input from businesses who need labor. But while some immigration hard-liners have said that position constitutes amnesty, Hagan insisted it does not because it would not allow illegal immigrants to win citizenship.

"It is the most false and misleading ad I have seen," Hagan said. "When I first heard about it, I almost fell out of my chair laughing."

With the election still more than a month away, voters in the district are already tired of it all.

"It's getting to be a nuisance," said Mildred Cline, a Warner Robins resident who voted for President Bush but said she's turned off by the Republican attacks on Marshall. "I don't believe half of what I hear on TV."

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On The Net

Jim Marshall for Congress: http://www.friendsofjimmarshall.com/

Mac Collins for Congress: http://www.collinsforcongress.com/