The Redskins name issue finally worked its way into political ads Monday night. Specifically, the topic was broached by Republican Ed Gillespie, in his campaign to unseat Virginia Senator Mark Warner.

“Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has a bill to force the Redskins to change their name,” the narrator says in the ad for Gillespie, which ran during the first half of the Redskins-Cowboys Monday Night Football broadcast. “Mark Warner refused to answer if he supports the bill or not. Why won’t Warner fight the anti-Redskins bill? Why won’t he answer the question?”

“I’ll answer the question,” Gillespie then said with a chuckle. “I’ll oppose the anti-Redskins bill. Let’s focus on creating jobs, raising take-home pay and making our nation safer, and let the Redskins handle what to call their team.”

Which bill is this? Via Ian Shapira’s report in The Post last month:

A group of Democratic senators introduced a bill on Thursday that would revoke the NFL’s tax-exempt status if it continues to back the Washington Redskins name. “It is not right that the National Football League continues to denigrate an entire population,” said the bill’s co-sponsor and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in a statement. “I wish Roger Goodell and the NFL’s leadership team would take a stand. As the past few weeks have illustrated, the problems within the NFL are far and wide. Today we are taking action and I gladly stand with Senator [Maria] Cantwell in calling for the end of NFL’s not-for-profit status.”

Like fellow Virginia Democrat Tim Kaine, Warner declined to sign the letter from dozens of Democratic senators to the NFL last spring, calling on the league to reconsider the Redskins name issue.

An aide to Warner said in a statement then that “Senator Warner believes that it’s not for Congress to dictate what the league does. He believes that over time, team names will change to reflect the times, as happened with the Washington Wizards.”

Update: Via Politico Magazine, more about Gillespie and the NFL: