Senator Kay Hagan (D., N.C.) provided a clear sign that she is worried about the threat to her reelection posed by reports that her husband’s company, JDC Manufacturing, received a grant through the 2009 stimulus: Her campaign has released an ad trying to rebut the charge and attack her opponent, Republican state-house speaker Thom Tillis, for crony capitalism.

“Hagan’s family didn’t profit. The energy efficiency project was cleared by an ethics lawyer and approved by auditors every step of the way,” the ad says, citing a September 25 Politico report.

One problem for Hagan: “How Sen. Hagan’s husband won stimulus cash” headlines the Politico story.

The vulnerable Democrat has received some help from a state government official who defended her husband from suggestions of impropriety after Tillis launched ads about the Hagan family’s business receiving a grant through the 2009 stimulus.

“Officials from the State Energy office said that Chip Hagan did nothing improper or out of the ordinary,” according to the Charlotte News & Observer. “And a review of documents from Chip Hagan’s company and the State Energy Office show there never were any savings to refund, and that the project went over budget not under.”

That contradicts a Carolina Journal report that the taxpayer-funded project came under budget and that Hagan applied the savings to his portion of the costs.

While the News & Observer challenges the CJ report that Hagan’s husband used the stimulus money to hire his son Tilden’s company, it also confirms that the younger Hagan worked on the project.

“As the News & Observer story states, Tilden was hired on an hourly basis, along with other workers, by an outside electrical contracting firm that performed the work and oversaw the project. His company was not contracted to do the job,” Caitlin Legacki, a spokeswoman for JDC Manufacturing, told NRO in an e-mail.

That may be an important distinction for some purposes — the Tillis campaign, notably, steered clear of this aspect of the story in its stimulus-focused TV ad — but it’s not enough to make the Carolina Journal back down.

“The Green State Power website features the Plastic Revolutions project, saying ‘the smooth installation and quick production of power prompted them to install an additional 58kW [solar] array in a similar location,” the publicantion counters. “Moreover, in November and December 2010, Tilden filed invoices as an hourly laborer for Circuitmakers Inc., a subcontractor that worked on the installation. About the same time, Tilden also was behaving very much like a project manager.”

So, you can expect the super PAC attacking Hagan for “funnel[ing] the money to another company owned by the Hagans” to keep the ad on the air.