Hard-fought elections in two upstate districts have Democrats turning to Hollywood for last-minute cash, while Republicans are tapping the wallets of state party stalwarts and local business leaders.

A national political group targeting Rep. James Walsh, a Republican of Syracuse, recently landed $25,000 gifts from the producer of “All in the Family,” Norman Lear, and from Edith Wasserman, the wife of the late chairman of Universal Studios, Lew Wasserman. At about the same time, the group, Majority Action, spent $40,000 on ads attacking Mr. Walsh’s opposition to unfettered stem cell research.

In the blunt television spots, a little girl asks about Mr. Walsh: “How come he thinks he gets to decide who lives and who dies? Who’s he?”

Syracuse’s ABC affiliate, WSYR, pulled the ads after Mr. Walsh’s campaign charged that they falsely claimed he favors a ban on stem cell research, but other stations are carrying the ads. The nine-term member of Congress said he backs President Bush’s position on allowing research on existing cell lines, which many scientists contend are inadequate. Mr. Walsh’s Democratic opponent, Daniel Maffei, favors extensive federally funded stem cell research.

In a neighboring district that includes the Buffalo suburbs, a new political group has sprung into action to save Rep. Thomas Reynolds, a Republican who is in trouble because of his links to a congressman who resigned last month after propositioning former Capitol pages.

The new organization, New Yorkers for Responsible Leadership, is running TV ads blasting the Democratic candidate, Jack Davis, as “a joke” and “an eccentric, out-of-touch millionaire with really kooky ideas.” The ad also contends Mr. Davis wants “less Social Security,” an apparent reference to interviews in which the businessman spoke about increasing the retirement age.

Mr. Davis has said that his Social Security comments were taken out of context and that he no longer favors such a change. A spokesman for his campaign did not respond to a request for comment for this article.

According to a report filed Friday with the Federal Election Commission, New Yorkers for Responsible Leadership raised $61,000 from 10 donors since its creation October 17.

The largest gift, $25,000, came from a former GOP state party chairman, Alexander Treadwell. Donations of $5,000 came from various Buffalo-area businessmen, as well as a political action committee connected with a former Republican congressman, Jack Quinn.

Both groups are so-called 527s, which get that label from the section of the tax code under which they are organized. They accept gifts larger than the $5,000 maximum allowed for traditional federal political action committees, but critics, including Mr. Bush, have asserted that many of the 527 groups are acting illegally and should be shut down.