Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole began her general election TV advertising campaign Wednesday, stressing an issue she thinks will be a strength -- a crackdown on illegal immigrants -- and addressing a potential weakness -- her image as a creature of Washington.

The Dole ad campaign comes more than five months before the Nov. 4 election. It also comes at a time when several statewide public opinion polls show Dole in a close race with her Democratic challenger, state Sen. Kay Hagan of Greensboro.

The TV ad features a posse of North Carolina sheriffs who discuss Dole's efforts on behalf of a partnership between local law enforcement and federal immigration officials, to make it easier to deport illegal immigrants who have committed crimes.

"The politicians talk and talk about illegal immigration, but Senator Dole actually did something about it," Johnston County Sheriff Steve Bizzell says in the ad.

The TV ad also serves as a political travelogue, stressing her meetings with sheriffs around the state, showing her in places such as Beaufort, Raeford, Greensboro, Hendersonville, Lexington, Mocksville and Statesville, and then ending with footage of her at the beach.

"I'm sure glad she's from North Carolina," one sheriff says.

"Obviously, it's a response to some of the polling figures which are now universally showing that she has a fairly tight race, much closer than anybody could have imagined," said Andy Taylor, a political science professor at N.C. State University.

Dole now has the airwaves to herself. She reported having $3.1 million on hand in her campaign coffers, compared with $317,311 for Hagan, as of mid-April.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has sent out two fundraising letters on behalf of Hagan in recent weeks, according to Jennifer Duffy, a political analyst with the Cook Political Report, a Washington newsletter.

Hagan "is not capable of going up with her own ad," Duffy said.

Dole said she plans to spend a half-million dollars over two weeks on her statewide TV ad. It was produced by Fred Davis, a Los Angeles media consultant, who handled Dole's TV ads during her 2002 Senate campaign as well as for George W. Bush's 2004 re-election campaign, and the campaigns of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue and Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker.

In choosing immigration as the subject of her first TV ad, Dole is reinforcing the importance that the issue is likely to play as she seeks a second term.

"She's picked an issue that galvanizes the base pretty well," Duffy said. "It is one you will hear a lot about between now and November."

Dole is scheduled to meet today in Graham with a group of sheriffs to discuss immigration enforcement.

Her ad also seeks to address her image as a Washington insider. Although she is a North Carolina native who retains her family home in Salisbury, Dole has spent most of her adult life in Washington. Since her election, critics have complained that she has not spent enough time in the Tar Heel state.

"She is trying to address images that people have of her -- that she is not too interested in North Carolina and is more interested in Washington," Taylor said.