Coming to a theater near you tomorrow are 15 second commercials for Supreme Court candidate John Groen.

The ads are the first shot in the Building Industry Association of Washington's campaign to elect Groen and two others to the high court. The ads will run in 43 movie theaters throughout the state from tomorrow until the Sept. 19 primary.

BIAW Executive Vice President Tom McCabe said the ad buy cost less than $50,000. The spots will run before each movie. They are only on behalf of Groen, running against Chief Justice Gerry Alexander, and not the other BIAW-endorsed candidates, Justice Tom Chambers or Sen. Steve Johnson, who is challenging Justice Susan Owens.

"I'm not certain how effective this will be," McCabe told me. But he says that just like other advertisers, political groups need to find new ways to reach people through the burgeoning media saturation.

I don't know if anyone has run political ads in a movie theater here before. I've certainly never seen one. BIAW has tried different approaches before. In the parking lot of the group's Olympia office is slightly run-down ice cream truck - a relic from a decade-old campaign for Sen. Pam Roach that featured free ice cream for the kids and a Roach brochure for their parents.

As soon as I get a copy of the ad I'll post it here.

• John Groen political ads

Also, my column today is about BIAW and the court races.