In an early campaign ad, Sen. Patty Murray is boasting of her role in fighting for Boeing to win the $40 billion contract for the U.S. Air Force Force aerial-refueling tanker.

The 30-second spot features Boeing workers crediting Murray with preventing their jobs from "going to France" when the Air Force tried to pick a tanker built by Airbus instead of the modified 767 offered by Boeing.

The ad does not delve into the tangled history of the tanker project. That included a four-month federal prison sentence for Boeing's former CFO, Michael Sears, who illegally tried to recruit a top Air Force acquisitions officer to the company while that officer was at the Pentagon overseeing the tanker contract.

Despite that setback, Boeing and its political allies, including Murray and Congressman Norm Dicks, kept the tanker issue alive and backed the company's protest of the tanker-bid process. In 2008, government auditors sided with Boeing, reopening the contract to competition.

Over the last five years, Murray has received nearly $75,000 in political contributions from Boeing and its employees, according to OpenSecrets.org.

A Murray campaign spokeswoman said the ad is running in TV markets "across the state" but would not disclose the size of the ad buy.

Transcript of ad after the jump:

Multiple workers:

The jobs were going to France.

If Patty Murray hadn't stopped it,

The federal government was giving a thirty-five Billion dollar contract

To a foreign company,

But Patty helped stop it.

Senator Murray stood up for us

She put Boeing back in the game.

Senator Murray leveled the playing field.

Because we should build these planes

And that means jobs.

Local jobs

Ten thousand local jobs.

Patty Murray:

I'm Patty Murray and I sponsored this ad because the men and women who defend our country should be flying planes built in America.