COLUMBIA, S.C. - Television airwaves are filling up with negative messages about the candidates vying to replace U.S. Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings and it's only going to get worse until the election, experts say.

Taxes dominate the latest ads in which Democrat Inez Tenenbaum charges her Republican opponent wants to create a 23-cent federal sales tax, while DeMint answers that Tenenbaum supports a $1 billion state sales tax increase.

Both candidates claim the attacks are misleading or false, and each denies their ads are political attacks.

"Of course it is," said Lester Duhe, a political media consultant in Columbia. "Negative emotions are very, very strong and in many instances they're a lot stronger than positive ones," Duhe said.

The candidates also have had third-party help spreading negative messages.

Since Aug. 1, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has spent $800,000 on television spots slamming DeMint in nearly every television market across the state, said the group's spokeswoman Cara Morris.

That's more than half of the $1.2 million the committee has reserved in air time, but it could spend more, Morris said.

"For both parties, this is a high priority race," said DeMint's spokesman Geoff Embler. "I think it's a sign that they're getting desperate that they're having to go so negative - so intensely, so quickly - and spend so much money."

Embler said he expected the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee to pitch in to help DeMint closer to the election.

A pro-Republican political action committed called Americans for Job Security stung Tenenbaum with ads across the state in July and August claiming she supported as much as $2 billion in new taxes.

Tenenbaum, the state education superintendent, didn't recommend any specific plan to raise taxes in South Carolina, her spokeswoman said. "Her point was the General Assembly has an obligation to fund education," said Tenenbaum's spokeswoman Kay Packett.

Tenenbaum's latest ad says DeMint's 23-cent tax proposal could devastate the state economy.

"I think that she is discussing an alarming proposal that voters need to be aware of," Packett said.

DeMint responded, saying he's never voted for a tax increase and is supported by anti-tax groups. But he doesn't deny he proposed a 23-cent tax increase.

"If they're going to attack, we're certainly going to clarify the record," said DeMint's spokesman Geoff Embler.

Political experts say this is just the beginning of the ad wars to sway voters' emotions voters.

"I think it's just a matter of trying to show which candidate is more in step with the values and ideals of how people feel about paying their taxes," Duhe said.

Furman University political scientist Danielle Vinson said so far the subject matter of the attacks is fair game. However, she said it's interesting that most of the ads - positive or negative - focus on DeMint.

"I think Tenenbaum is going to have to make sure her proposals of her ideas are being heard," Vinson said. "I know she's held news conferences and she's talking about things when she goes out to talk to people but it's not coming out in the ads."

"If she doesn't start getting through statewide on where she stands on some of these other issues it could become a problem because she is kind of unknown for people on issues beyond education," Vinson said.