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This week, Minnesota TV viewers will see the men who played Johnny "Sack" Sacramoni of "The Sopranos" and Stuart Smalley of "Saturday Night Live" without tuning into either show; both currently appear in political ads in the state's Senate race.

Al Franken, the former "SNL" actor and front-running Democratic candidate, today began airing a TV ad (subscription) in which he blames legislators-turned-lobbyists for high gas prices and proposes a law to ban retired lawmakers from a second career in lobbying. "In Washington, they debate whether former members of Congress should wait one year or two years before they can become registered lobbyists," Franken says in the ad. "How about never?"

Passing such ethics legislation would be a tough sell on Capitol Hill, but proposing it now could help Franken buff his image in Minnesota, where he has been hurt by the discovery of some $50,000 in unpaid taxes as well as by inevitable opposition research into his past writings as a humorist.

Franken's good government message hits airwaves just two days after the debut of a new third-party ad depicting him in a far more sinister light. The spot (subscription) employs the wise-guy charisma of "Sopranos" actor Vincent Curatola to paint Franken as an opponent of the secret ballot for union organizing votes (and, indirectly, an abetter of organized crime). "My pal Al," Curatola calls him. Republican incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman, in contrast, is described as "a hero" -- an opponent of Curatola's mafioso and a defender of "worker privacy."

The ad refers to the controversy over the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill that would make it easier to form unions by eliminating an employer's right to demand a secret ballot. Franken has said he supports the bill; Coleman does not. The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, an organization of retailers and manufacturers which paid for the ad, has already run an ad in Minnesota opposing the measure, although that one did not make explicit reference to any candidate.