Slick ad: Schuette is a pawn of oil interests

Michigan Democrats are drilling for votes with a new Internet video that tries to Bill Schuette, Republican candidate for attorney general, to the oil leak disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

The video makes the case that Schuette, a former state senator, took oil industry donations and then sponsored a bill to allow slant drilling in the Great Lakes, the Detroit Free Press reported. The feds later imposed a two-year moratorium on Great Lakes oil drilling.

The advertisement implies that the kind of drilling Schuette backs could lead to a similar kind of disaster in Michigan’s back yard.

Schuette’s campaign officials said Schuette has a strong environmental record, saying he backed strict protections for the Great Lakes drilling and voted with the Legislature to prohibit oil drilling in the Great Lakes.

The Democratic Party has endorsed Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton for attorney general.