The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has entered the Alaska state Senate race in support of GOP candidate Dan Sullivan. The ad, shown below, will begin airing tomorrow.

Anchorage Chamber President Andrew Halcro was “mad as hell” when he heard about the ad. When the U.S. Chamber recently told him in a conference call that it was thinking about getting involved, he implored them to stay away. The Anchorage Chamber is nonpartisan, and this puts it in an “untenable situation,” Halcro said. Besides, he’s “sick and tired” of third-party money coming into the state. Such ads “don’t add any value to the discourse, and suffocates any solution to the problems,” he said.

Halcro said that he spent all morning answering concerns from his group’s membership.

The Chamber is also involved in five other tight races across the country. It hasn’t yet filed with the FEC, so it’s unknown how big the ad buy in Alaska is. Sullivan’s brother, Frank Sullivan, is one of 128 Chamber-board members.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com