In the ad, a Utah actor in a flannel shirt tells viewers that while former Gov. Tony Knowles wants to be our senator, he was unable to persuade fellow Democrats to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil and gas drilling.

Now Tony wants to work with these 'friends' in Washington. We need to tell Tony what they're all telling us: No way, the actor said.

The Knowles campaign, which is in a close campaign fight with incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski, said the ad is intentionally deceptive.

Had he not said 'we think' or 'our senator' then it wouldn't really be that big of deal, but as soon as he said 'we' and 'our senator,' at that point they're trying to mislead Alaskans, said Knowles campaign spokesman Matt McKenna.

Dave Hansen, the Utahn who produced the ad for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said Democrats are nitpicking and that the actor never said he was an Alaskan.

If you really want to get into hairsplitting, we're talking about the election of a United States senator, and I guess technically you could say all U.S. senators represent all the people, Hansen said.

Hansen, who is working for John Swallow in Utah's 2nd District Race, picked W Communications, a Utah ad company that has done work for Rep. Rob Bishop, Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, former gubernatorial candidate Fred Lampropolous and others, to shoot the ad.

The important thing is the message of the ad, Hansen said. If all the Knowles people have to do is attack the messenger, then obviously the message is hitting home.

McKenna responded, Everybody in Alaska knows that Knowles has spent his career standing up to both parties to advocate drilling in ANWR, so the message is misleading, not only the messenger.