Election day is more than a year away, but the first attack ad against Democratic gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink is already on YouTube. Perhaps it's also the first intellectual property theft of the election year as well.

The internet ad comes courtesy of Stafford Jones and Jay Navarette, the Alachua County Republicans who run the Don't Bank on Sink web site.

The ad hits CFO Sink for her use of the state plane, following recent Herald/Times stories about how Sink and her opponent, Attorney General Bill McCollum, use the state plane at taxpayer expense. By the way, the creators of the ad neither asked nor received permission to use our video. (We'll ask our lawyers what they think....)

The Times editorial board today knocked Sink and McCollum for sending the plane, often empty, to get them to and from their homes outside Tallahassee.