For the US Senate, your options are a corrupt would-be Imelda Marcos who spends her days shoe shopping at Saks, or a shyster who pockets profits from diamond fraud in between throwing old people under buses.

For the House of Representatives, you can choose between an unhinged extremist who hates social security and rape victims, or a lying, cheating hypocrite who milks taxpayers every chance he gets.

And for the White House, of course, it's either a socialist who will collectivise the economy and destroy private enterprise, or a lupine plutocrat who will destroy healthcare and put women in binders.

Welcome to the land of non-stop television political attack ads, where dirty rotten scoundrels run for office just so they can persecute the middle class, reward cronies, loot the state and unleash dystopia. Welcome to Nevada.

An unprecedented blizzard of political ads – 10,000 a week – has howled through the state's airwaves, setting a national record in volume, money and, many would say, nastiness.

"We've never seen it at this level before. The market is just saturated," said Dan McElhatten, executive creative director at Brand, a Las Vegas advertising firm. "At this point people are confused. This level of banter is going to numb society."

A combination of factors has made Nevada the fiercest media front in a year that is expected to set a new record – $3.3bn, up from $2.8bn in 2008 – for nationwide political advertising.

It has just six electoral college votes but as a swing state in a tight presidential contest it could be decisive, giving the Barack Obama and Mitt Romney campaigns plenty of incentive to hammer each other.

Nevada also has a tight senate race, which Republicans and Democrats think could tip control of the Senate, as well as elections for the House, all on the 6 November ballot.

The fact that most of Nevada's population is clustered in and around just two cities, Las Vegas and Reno, makes it relatively cheap for candidates and Super Pac allies to buy copious airtime.

"My God, does it ever stop?" groaned Samuel Sanchez, 44, jogging on a Las Vegas hotel gym treadmill and watching yet another interruption of the quiz show Jeopardy. "On and on and on."

Cities in other swing states such as Ohio, Florida and Colorado have also been saturated but none as heavily as Las Vegas, which has notched up 73,000 ads so far this year.

Television stations have scaled back programming, including news, to sell more airtime while the bonanza lasts. "Before there would be a placement strategy, ads placed in certain places, now they're just blanketed all over the place," said McElhatten, the executive.

Commentators say the volume is matched by the venom. A GOP commercial showed video of Shelley Berkley, a Democratic congresswoman running for Senate, shopping at Saks in Manhattan – she took a shine to beige stilettos – to mock her claim to return to Nevada to see recession-hit constituents every weekend. "Actions speak louder than words, Shelley," it said. Another ad cast her as a near mafioso on the basis of a congressional inquiry into allegations she lobbied for her husband's financial interests.

Berkley's campaign hit back by trying to link Dean Heller, the Republican she hopes to unseat, to a $64m diamond scam.

Democrats also played on Heller's former ties to a businessman who pleaded guilty to laundering drug money, and his purported desire to abolish social security and leave the elderly unprotected.

p>An ad for John Oceguera, the Democratic nominee for the House of Representatives, accuses his Republican rival, Joe Heck, of callousness towards rape victims.

A woman who describes herself as a victim of sexual violence says: "I see the fear in their eyes … For many victims of rape or abuse, it's a matter of life and death. I know because I was a victim myself. I don't know why Joe Heck would vote against funding for a rape crisis center … maybe he's never had to look in their eyes."

Many have called the ad a smear. "This is a desperate and revolting attempt to make women believe Heck is monstrous. And, I suppose, it just might do the trick," wrote Jon Ralston, a prominent commentator.

Heck has retaliated by accusing Oceguera, a former firefighter who retired with a generous pension, of being a "world-class hypocrite" who last year "gamed the system" for $450,000 in compensation.

"We paid for it," says an announcer. "And we paid for Oceguera's tax hikes, the largest in Nevada history. Businesses raised prices, cut work forces. With John Oceguera, everyone loses. Everyone but him."

For all the effort and money, some experts doubt the impact of such advertising. Nevertheless, noted Diana Mutz, a University of Pennsylvania professor, noted in a recent paper for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences: "As long as 90% of the American public believes that the news media influence who becomes president and more than 70% see that influence as growing, candidates and their campaigns will continue to behave as if these perceptions were true.

"To do anything else risks being seen as less serious and, therefore, less electable."