Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., lends her support to Rick Noriega's senate campaign during an appearance at McAllen-Miller International Airport on Thursday, Oct. 2, 2008 before attending a private fundraiser in McAllen, Texas. (AP Photo/The Monitor, Alex Jones)**MAGS OUT, NO SALES,**

AUSTIN -- Democrat Rick Noriega's campaign suggested Monday that despite his claims to the contrary Republican Sen. John Cornyn is cozy with Wall Street investors and bankers who contribute millions to his campaigns.

Noriega's camp was responding to a Cornyn television ad in which the senator is shown walking among cattle in South Texas and speaking of the financial and credit crisis. "It shouldn't have happened," Cornyn says in the ad.

The Noriega campaign posted an ad on the Internet that contends Cornyn "just follows the herd." It points out that Cornyn, a first-term Texas senator, has accepted $3.9 million from the financial, insurance and real estate sectors.

Among the donations are $731,525 from those in the security and investment industry and $546,342 from donors in commercial banking, the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, which is cited as the Noriega campaign's source, states on its Web site.

"Cornyn has a long record of pay-to-play politics," said Noriega spokesman Martine Apodaca. "Unfortunately for Texans, after taking nearly $4 million from the financial industry Cornyn turned around and gave them $700 billion in taxpayer money. It looks like the financial industry got quite a return on their investment."

The ad for the underfunded Noriega campaign is running only on the Internet instead of in paid advertising on television.

Cornyn was among 74 senators from both parties who voted last week for a $700 billion financial rescue package that President Bush signed into law on Friday.

Cornyn spokesman Kevin McLaughlin said the Noriega ad is "disingenuous" because the nearly $4 million in contributions from the financial industry don't all represent Wall Street.

"These people who are giving him money are small town stockbrokers, independent insurance brokers, are realtors," McLaughlin said. "Senator Cornyn has received more, a higher percentage of his donations, in state than any incumbent running for Congress."

McLaughlin brushed off Noriega's assertion as "just another negative attack" from a desperate campaign a month before the Nov. 4 election. He also said Noriega refuses to say whether he supports tax breaks and other measures contained in last week's massive bailout.

In response, Noriega said Monday during a visit at the University of Texas in Austin the bailout bill should have been a stand-alone proposal. He opposed the bill as written and said it should have included more regulatory teeth and oversight of how the money will be spent.

"We shouldn't have to put a bunch of sugar on it to get votes if it was that critical an issue," Noriega said of the tax incentives in the bill.

He said it is similar to the Bush administration's invasion of Iraq in that the financial bailout isn't based on a clear plan. He said it amounts to a blank check for Wall Street and that federal officials haven't yet figured out how they are going to implement it.

"They don't have a plan. I mean, how irresponsible is that? Goodness gracious," he said.

Noriega's ad cites past congressional votes Cornyn has taken that Noriega claims shows his closeness with the financial industry.

In Cornyn's ad, the senator is cast as someone who tried to warn congressional leaders in Washington about the housing and financial crisis as long as two years ago. To back that up, Cornyn's campaign released a 2006 letter to Senate leaders that he and 19 other senators signed warning of potential problems with the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

But Noriega's campaign said Cornyn also accepted contributions from lobbyists for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

And, during his UT-Austin visit, Noriega mocked Cornyn's 2006 letter to Senate leaders.

"I know that Texas families feel so much more self-assured to know that when this country faces another trillion-dollar bailout of the incumbents' buddies, lobbyists from Wall Street, that he's going to send a letter," Noriega said.

Cornyn has released four different television ads so far, which are running on broadcast stations and cable statewide.