N.H. Probes Anti-Romney Poll Calls

[Ghost in the Machine]

N.H. Probes Anti-Romney Poll Calls
Published: 11/16/07, 2:46 PM EDT
By PHILIP ELLIOTT

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - New Hampshire's attorney general is investigating phone calls to voters that pretend to be opinion polls but then undercut presidential contender Mitt Romney and his Mormon faith - and make favorable statements about Republican rival John McCain.

McCain says they're not his doing and he wants them stopped. Romney says it's a religious attack and "un-American."

McCain said of the phone calling, "It is disgraceful, it is outrageous, and it is a violation, we believe, of New Hampshire law." His campaign asked the attorney general to investigate, and McCain, campaigning Friday in Colorado, asked other candidates to join in the request.

One McCain adviser, Chuck Douglas, said "we believe it is being done by one of the other campaigns. We don't know which one."

Western Wats, a Utah-based company, placed the calls that initially sound like a poll but then pose questions that cast Romney in a harsh light, according to people who received the calls. In politics, this type of phone surveying is called "push polling" - contacting potential voters and asking questions intended to plant a message, usually negative, rather than gauging attitudes.

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