LAS VEGAS (AP) — The TV ads thrum back-to-back, hour after hour: Republican Sen. Dean Heller wants taxpayers to subsidize oil companies. Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley is flipping foreclosed homes for profit. He wants to ship jobs overseas and strip health coverage from the elderly; she used her position in Congress to enrich her husband.

Nevada voters are enduring a numbing, on-air spectacle in the closing days of the state’s toss-up Senate race — there are even ads telling voters to ignore the ads. But the TV screen is only one window on the critical battleground — the outcome is likely to hinge on a furious push by President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney to turn out voters in the politically divided state.