Click here to watch "Pocket."

MoveOn.org unveiled its first Senate ad of this election cycle on Tuesday, targeting Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., as well as John McCain, for their ties to Big Oil. The half-million dollar buy begins airing throughout North Carolina today.

In "Pocket" (subscription), MoveOn echoes an ad Barack Obama released under the same title at the beginning of August that attacks McCain for his connections to oil companies. In MoveOn's ad, an announcer argues that, instead of working toward clean energy and independence from foreign oil, "John McCain and Elizabeth Dole allowed big oil companies to keep $13.5 billion dollars in tax breaks, while taking huge contributions from Big Oil."

Dole is facing an increasingly close battle with state Sen. Kay Hagan (D) to retain her seat. The latest polling shows Hagan has cut a double-digit lead to 6 percentage points. Perhaps this is evidence that the incessant attacks the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has thrown at Dole -- most notably for her low rating (subscription) in a recent congressional effectiveness study -- are starting to resonate with North Carolina voters.

And on the national level, North Carolina "is now within striking distance of becoming a presidential battleground state," said MoveOn spokeswoman Ilyse Hogue.

It may be no coincidence that MoveOn released this ad on the same day McCain visited an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico to show his support for domestic drilling. Hogue said that both Dole and McCain are "in lockstep in prioritizing Big Oil over American voters. And we think that North Carolinians need to see their track record on that energy crisis, and that that will help them make the right choice." Nonetheless, polling shows that most Americans support a comprehensive plan to address the energy crisis, including domestic drilling.

Dole spokesman Dan McLagan brushed off the ad, saying it wouldn't appeal to the state's "very conservative" electorate. "It obviously is a cookie-cutter ad," he said.

Although the McCain camp doesn't comment on third-party ads, Republican National Committee spokeswoman Amber Wilkerson released this statement in response to the ad: "The contrast on the issue of energy could not be clearer: John McCain has demonstrated leadership with his 'all of the above' plan, while Barack Obama took the most money from the pockets of Big Oil employees and would rather ask Americans to inflate their tires than increase our nation’s domestic oil supply."