One need only look to Arizona to see an example of this. Remember, they're not just racially profiling immigrants to turn it into a police state, they've also banned accents from the classroom (after specifically courting multilingual teachers too!). There are plenty of people in Arizona who are outraged at this, but that doesn't change the impression many people outside of Arizona now have of the state. This is the same state, by the way, that refused to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. day until 1992 - and only because of the massive backlash the state received after voting against honoring it in 1990 (including the NFL moving the location of the super bowl).
Alabama is distinctly different in the sense that they haven't passed laws like this - yet. That doesn't mean it's entirely unreasonable for people to pass judgement on Alabama due to these political ads though. After all, there are many other places in the country where a politician wouldn't even contemplate such an ad. While there may not be enough James sympathizers to win him the election, there are enough that he felt comfortable making the ad in the first place, and that does say something.
This is, after all, the same state and same election that has produced this anti-evolution/pro-bible ad: