Former Gov. Linda Lingle’s campaign for U.S. Senate released a video advertisement Friday that claims Lingle would partner with U.S. Sen. Daniel Ino­uye and that Ino­uye would retain his influence regardless of which political party controls the Senate — an ad the Hawaii Demo­crat called "grossly misleading."

In the video, retired Maj. Gen. Robert G.F. Lee, Lingle’s campaign manager, thanks Ino­uye for supporting the military and praises Inouye and the late U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, for delivering for Hawaii no matter which party held the majority.

Lee acknowledges that Ino­uye would lose his chairmanship of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee if Lingle and the Republicans take control of the Senate after the November elections. But he says Ino­uye would still be the committee’s ranking member.

"You can count on Sen. Ino­uye to remain effective with his seniority in the Senate regardless of which party is in the majority," he says. "Anything else said is disrespectful to the senior senator."

Inouye would also lose his position as Senate president pro tempore, a title given to the most senior member of the majority party, third in line to the presidency.

"I am not supporting Linda Lingle’s Senate candidacy and I would ask Gen. Lee to stop using this misleading ad," Ino­uye, who has endorsed U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono, Lingle’s Demo­cratic opponent, said in a statement. "Neither General Lee nor former Gov. Lingle discussed this advertisement with me. If they had, I would have objected because it is grossly misleading and suggests a relationship that has never existed.

"To claim that Gov. Lingle could replace my brother Ted Stevens is outrageous and as I have said previously, Linda Lingle is no Ted Stevens. After watching the ad, I would like to state that I am Daniel K. Ino­uye and I do not approve that message."

Lee said the Lingle campaign would not stop using the video. He said Ino­uye — through his partnership with Stevens and his seniority — was effective in the years when Republicans were previously in control. He believes Lingle and Ino­uye would "make a great team."

The video is the second Lingle ad directed at independents and moderate Demo­crats to cause blowback. The Lingle campaign quickly re-branded a television ad labeled "Demo­crats for Lingle" to "People Across the State Agree" last week after Hirono and other Demo­crats pointed out that several people who appeared in the ad have Republican ties.

Lingle and her advisers are respected for their communications skills, but several political observers think Lingle’s execution has been off since the August primary. For a Republican campaigning as bipartisan in a traditionally Demo­cratic state, her message, observers say, has to be pitch perfect.

In her two historic victories for governor, Lingle did not have to run against the backdrop of a Hawaii-born president up for re-election — Barack Obama — or an 88-year-old icon — Ino­uye — who controls the Senate committee that oversees federal spending.

John Hart, a Hawaii Pacific University communication professor, said the ideas behind Lingle’s ads are effective — if not the execution — because she has to appeal to Demo­crats and answer the argument that a vote for her is a vote for a Republican Senate.

"I still think she’s got an incredible uphill battle because at the end of the day, she’s not running against Mazie, she’s running against Barack Obama, and that’s a tough sell in his home state of Hawaii," he said.