The Nevada Republican Party has filed an ethics complaint against Democratic Rep. Jacky Rosen, accusing her of using her opposition to the repeal of net neutrality as a leg-up in the state's 2018 U.S. Senate race.

The letter, signed by party Executive Director Greg Bailor, accuses Rosen of violating a House Committee on Ethics prohibition on "fundraising off a promise of official action." It accused her of sending an email stating that she would be the "deciding vote" in the Senate to save net neutrality — a regulatory principle requiring Internet service providers to enable equal access to content and applications regardless of source or website — that the Federal Communications Commission moved to repeal in February.

"In essence, by employing this fundraising tactic, Rosen is signaling to potential contributors that her legislative agenda can be influenced by campaign contributions," he wrote in the March 12 letter.

In an email, Rosen spokesman Stewart Boss said the complaint lacked merit because the email referenced the April deadline for a potential vote that the U.S. Senate could take to reverse the FCC's decision, and that even if elected and sworn in by January 2019, Rosen wouldn't be able to vote to reverse the decision anyways.

"This is a desperate and disingenuous attempt to distract from Senator Heller's extensive record of unethical behavior, and the incompetent staff at the Nevada GOP seem to have accidentally admitted that Heller is guilty of impermissibly using his taxpayer-funded office for political purposes to help his re-election campaign," Boss said in an email. "The complaint has no merit, and any intelligent person who reads the email could figure that out."

Rosen is challenging incumbent Republican Sen. Dean Heller, who is an opponent of net neutrality and said in 2011 that it would "cost Nevada and the nation good paying jobs."

The Nevada Democratic Party has also targeted Heller with ethics complaints, filing at least three letters over a five-month period accusing him of using official Senate resources to support his re-election campaign.