Real-Life Marie Fights for Thompson in New Ad

ABC News’ Christine Byun Reports: Republican hopeful Fred Thompson is launching two new television ads that highlight his service to the country as “a young federal prosecutor, tough on crime.”

The two ads – “Service” and “Marie” – will be running in Iowa, where the campaign has already been on-air with two other ads, which have introduced Thompson’s biography and stance on immigration.

In the new ad titled “Marie,” the former Senator (R.-Tenn.) and lawyer, gets a boost from a former client, Marie Ragghianti. She was fired when she blew the whistle on a pardons-for-sale deal involving the then-Tennessee Governor Ray Blanton. Thompson represented Ragghianti– and her case was later made into a book and movie, which Thompson starred in as himself alongside Sissy Spacek.

“I was convinced [Thompson] had the courage to take on my fight. And I was right … Fred is a man of genuine integrity,” Ragghianti says in the ad.

The new ads also tout his latest endorsement from a national anti-abortion group. In Iowa, the local affiliate chapter of National Right to Life chose to stay neutral when Thompson was endorsed earlier this month.