Wierd issues with autocomplete and prototype

I have been trying to figure out an issue that I have run in to for the last couple of days. I am using autocomplete in a few areas in my project to pull up a list of things when adding something that has a relationship so that a user doesn't create duplicates. In some cases the fields for those objects are being added to the form after a user clicks on a add thing link and in other cases the fields are being built when the page loads. The issue I am having is that if I use the exact same code for the fields it works when I add the fields after the form has been generated via ajax but doesn't work when the fields are present on page load. I am running on edge rails and here is an example of the code being used:

<%= text_field_tag("publisher_name", nil, {:size => 30, :class => "inputText"}) %> <%= auto_complete_field("publisher_name", :url => auto_complete_publishers_path, :method => :get) %> <div class="auto_complete" id="publisher_name_auto_complete"></div>

Basically I am using a custom auto complete function and my app is REST based. I have routes set up and as I mentioned everything works as advertised in one case but not the other.

When I add the field on page load of the form I get the following error from prototype:

hide(null)prototype.js (line 1153) baseInitialize("publisher_name", "publisher_name_auto_complete", Object paramName=publisher_name tokens=[0] frequency=0.4)controls.js (line 84) initialize("publisher_name", "publisher_name_auto_complete", "/ publishers;auto_complete", Object paramName=publisher_name tokens=[0] frequency=0.4)controls.js (line 335) create()prototype.js (line 23) [Break on this error] $(element).style.display = 'none';

Any one have any idea what is going on?

Well I feel dumb. On a whim I decided to move the auto_complete_field tag to below the div it is set to update and everything works correctly. Guess I didn't try everything I could think of till this morning.