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The commercial opens with images of a firefighter, a woman in a lab coat and a soldier, then Bob Crumley walks purposefully down the stairs of a stone building.

A female announcer intones, "People helping people, that's part of our North Carolina heritage. For Bob Crumley, it's been his life."

Is it a campaign ad?

At least one public-interest watchdog says the ad has all the hallmarks of a modern campaign commercial and that Crumley may be running afoul of the spirit - if not the letter - of the state's campaign reporting law. And late Monday, the state Democratic Party made a formal complaint to the Board of Elections claiming that Crumley's campaign is violating reporting requirements.

But Crumley, who is the Republican nominee for attorney general, says it is merely an "image ad" for his business.

"If I had never done advertising before and all of a sudden came up with television ads, you might have an argument there," Crumley said. "But I'm not doing anything that I didn't do before."

Crumley's law firm, Crumley & Associates, is based in Greensboro and has offices throughout the state. He is running against Roy Cooper, the Democratic incumbent. The Republican's law firm has been a heavy advertiser for many of his years in business.

But this latest ad doesn't mention that Crumley is a lawyer or that his business is a law firm.

"You can't watch that thing without thinking it's an ad for someone running for office," said Bob Phillips, who heads the North Carolina branch of Common Cause, a public-interest advocacy group that has lobbied for more stringent campaign finance rules.

This kind of ad allows a candidate to build name recognition, Phillips said, something critical to those running for statewide office. And because it is aired by a private business, it is not subject to fundraising limitations or disclosure requirements as ads aired by political campaigns might be.

"If it's not a violation of the law, it's against the spirit of what campaign disclosure and reporting is all about," Phillips said.

Gary Bartlett, executive director of the state Board of Elections, says the ad does not violate the state's campaign finance reporting laws.

"We're in an area where you might be trampling on somebody's First Amendment freedoms and, as you know, regulation has not been favored by the courts," Bartlett said.

Under current law, unless an advertisement directly urges someone to vote against or for a candidate, it is not subject to campaign disclosure.

Bartlett said the question of advertising for private businesses with ties to political candidates is nothing new.

"We have had several candidates before who all of a sudden have their pictures on billboards or all of a sudden their business has more advertisements in the newspaper or television," Bartlett said. "It's something that's a part of every election."

Others are unconvinced. Democratic Party officials had no comment on a complaint they filed at 4:59 p.m. Monday that argues, "Without disclosure of who is paying for the advertisements and how much is being spent, voters will have no information regarding the sponsorship of this apparent effort to influence the 2008 election."

Crumley argues this ad is part of his law firm's ongoing advertising strategy and targets business people and those with higher incomes as clients who don't respond to more traditional law firm advertising.

"For many upper-income people, if I go and say, 'Hi, I'm Bob Crumley and I'm a lawyer,' they don't hear the next 28 seconds," Crumley said. The Democratic Party, he said, "doesn't appreciate business in North Carolina" if officials there think private firms should have to stop advertising when their principals run for office.

When asked if such commercials might give him an unfair advantage over his rival, Crumley said it might be an advantage but it wasn't unfair.

Cooper, he said, can send out news releases and make other announcements that are more readily covered by the news media, while Crumley's own news releases don't get such response.

Messages left with Cooper's campaign office were not returned Monday.

State laws ban public office holders from airing taxpayer-funded public service announcements during an election cycle. So Cooper could not appear in a PSA that promotes his department's anti-fraud efforts. Crumley said that sort of ban is appropriate.

"So here's the difference: I am a private businessman running a private business....I am the brand for the law firm."

But Phillips is unconvinced and said the legislature should construct some way to force disclosure of spending on advertising that features candidates but is not strictly a political ad.

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com