U.S. Sen. Luther Strange is touting his approach to ethics, calling his former anti-corruption unit the "best public integrity unit" in the country during the waning days of a campaign ahead of the Sept. 26 GOP runoff.

"I'm proud of that record," said Strange, referring to the corruption unit's efforts in securing a conviction against former Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard in 2016, and for getting former Sumter County Sheriff Tyrone Clark Sr. impeached.

"I created, when no one else would, the best public corruption unit in the United States of America to follow the truth where it led which included the Speaker of the House of Alabama," Strange said after he spoke before a group of Republicans in Robertsdale Saturday. "It didn't win me any political friends."

Strange's comments come as he has battled against claims, throughout the campaign, of accepting what his opponents have called an unethical appointment to the Senate in February from former Gov. Robert Bentley while the Attorney General's Office was investigating improper behavior by the governor.

Bentley resigned in April amid allegations he was having an improper relationship with a former aide, Rebekah Caldwell Mason.

Strange said he didn't believe that accepting the appointment from Bentley, to replace Attorney General Jeff Session, was problematic. Sessions resigned in February after he was confirmed to join the Trump administration as the country's top law enforcement official.

"I don't see it as an issue," Strange said. "I wouldn't be able to consider taking the appointment if I had not put together the best public integrity team in the United States that would continue to seek the truth wherever it led, which is exactly what it did and led to the removal of the governor shortly after I took the appointment," Strange said. "Clearly, there was no impropriety in anyway."

Strange's recent touting of the anti-corruption team puts the group back in the spotlight. The senator, as attorney general, formed it in 2012, two years after the Legislature adopted new ethics laws combating public corruption.

The unit's work, behind lead prosecutor Matt Hart, was magnified in 2014, when the group filed 23 counts of corruption against Hubbard.

"No one has a record that comes even close to matching mine when it comes to convicting corrupt public officials," said Strange, who then blasted his opponent, former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, for being removed from the bench twice - the first time in 2003, for refusing to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the Alabama Supreme Court building. He was suspended from the bench last year for ordering probate judges to withhold marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Moore's campaign did not respond to requests for comment.

"The contrast is really stark," Strange said.

Strange's emphasis on ethics, according to longtime Alabama political observers, is noteworthy.

"At least he is dealing with an issue that haunts him," said retired Athens State University political science professor Jess Brown, who has long said the Bentley appointment is a political problem for the senator. "It suggests he now knows he cannot win unless he reduces that liability and he has the benefit of Moore having no effective message regarding a salient economic issue."

William Stewart, a professor emeritus of political sciences at the University of Alabama, said Strange's recent messaging comes with some risks.

"Alabama voters are not known for insisting on the highest standard of integrity when they vote," Stewart said. "Otherwise, Alabama would not be ranked as one of the most corrupt states in the nation."

He added, "Strange's stand for strict adherence to law, including unpopular federal court decisions, is a commendable one. Win or lose, I think he will go down as a candidate of principle despite his heavy emphasis earlier in the campaign on very negative campaigning."