Two Tampa Bay sheriffs featured in new ad from Adam Putnam

In his Republican primary for Governor, Agriculture Commissioner Commissioner Adam Putnam has repeatedly faced criticism from his opponent for being soft on illegal immigration.

But Putnam continues to push back against that claim on the airwaves, where he's now up with a second advertisement promising to crack down on undocumented immigrants.

The new ad released Monday by Putnam's political committee, Florida Grown, looks and sounds a lot like another from just a few weeks ago.

Like the last one, Putnam is joined by a uniformed sheriff. The biggest difference is who is inside the uniform.

This one features three Florida sheriffs, including two from Tampa Bay: Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister and Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco. The third is Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods. Putnam cut a previous ad with Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd.

In it, Putnam continues to present an immigration agenda modeled closely after the one coming from President Donald Trump.

"We need to support President Trump's plan to secure our borders and ban sanctuary cities. We need to protect taxpayers and deport violent criminals now."

The premise of the ad is centered around the spurious assertion that "taxpayers in Florida are paying nearly a hundred million dollars a year to imprison criminal illegal aliens." Independent fact-checking site PolitiFact called that claim "Mostly False."

Putnam's primary opponent, U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, has spent much of his campaign attacking Putnam's record on immigration, especially votes Putnam made in Congress.

As a Republican leader in Washington, D.C., Putnam co-sponsored a bipartisan effort in President Barack Obama's first term to alter the country's immigration system and it included a guest worker program with a pilot program of earned status for immigrants.

(For what it's worth, PolitiFact has rated a claim that Putnam was "for amnesty" as Half True.)

Against that criticism, Putnam has tried to project himself as a law-and-order candidate. He often touts the endorsements he's received from dozens of Florida's elected sheriffs and police unions and he has released a public safety agenda closely aligned with the Trump administration's priorities.

DeSantis spokesman Dave Vasquez called Putnam's latest ad a "rewrite" of his record.