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RALEIGH (AP) - Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue is hoping again that "Sheriff Andy Taylor" will help take her across the finish line first.

Perdue, the Democratic candidate for governor, unveiled a new television ad Monday in which television icon Andy Griffith endorses her for governor.

Perdue is competing with Republican Pat McCrory for what is the closest gubernatorial general election in a generation.

The folksy Griffith, who lives in Manteo and played Sheriff Taylor in the popular 1960s sitcom, "The Andy Griffith Show," also appeared in a Perdue commercial before the primary.

In a reference to the opening to his show - when he and fictional son Opie went fishing - Griffith tells viewers he likes to whistle on his way to the lake.

"But this is no time for whistling. This is the time to gather around a strong leader - Bev Perdue," he says. "With her help, times will get better for whistling again."

Griffith appeared in ads for now-outgoing Gov. Mike Easley during his 2000 and 2004 campaigns. The 2000 ad helped Easley clinch the election, his advisers said at the time.

McCrory, the Charlotte mayor, has said during the fall campaign that he expected Griffith to appear on Perdue's behalf in the final days in an attempt to blot out what he calls Perdue's negative advertising.

"For eight years, Beverly Perdue has whistled as she walked past corruption, scandal and mismanagement in state government," McCrory campaign spokesman Richard Hudson said in a prepared statement. "Beverly Perdue knows a lot about whistling, but she has failed to lead."

McCrory's campaign Monday tried to pick holes in a commercial and mailers released by Perdue and a state employees' group that endorsed her.

An attorney for his campaign filed a complaint with the State Board of Elections alleging a post card mailed by the State Employees Association of North Carolina is breaking campaign laws.

But association executive director Dana Cope said the accusations are wrong.

The mailer was sent only to the association's 55,000 members, so it's not subject to campaign disclosure laws, Cope said.

He said the group stands by statements accusing McCrory of voting for a pay raise for himself while voting against a raise for public employees.

McCrory's campaign said that's not true because he didn't vote as mayor for the raise and vetoed a budget that contained pay raises because it also had a property tax increase.

Perdue's campaign also said Monday it would return a $1,000 contribution it received last week from a New Jersey lobbyist that represents a company that wanted to build a landfill in the Brunswick County town of Navassa.

Perdue has run a television ad criticizing McCrory for opposing a 2007 law that proponents said prevented large landfills from being built in eastern North Carolina, possibly taking in trash from northeastern states. McCrory has said he and other mayors opposed it because it included a $2-per-ton surcharge on trash collected at landfills that cities will have to pay.

Perdue campaign spokesman David Kochman said she didn't know that Tonio Burgos of Jersey City, N.J., owns a lobbying and public relations firm that counted the landfill firm Sims Hugo Neu as its client.

But McCrory spokeswoman Amy Auth said the disclosure is "just the latest example of the culture of hypocrisy Pat wants to change."

Kochman said that McCrory's campaign also received in March a $4,000 donation from a Waste Industries executive, Lonnie Poole. Waste Industries had wanted to build a landfill in Camden County.