McCain files push poll complaint in N.H.

Presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) New Hampshire campaign Friday morning was in the process of filing a complaint with the state’s attorney general’s office after reports surfaced of push polling aimed at McCain rival Mitt Romney (R), the former Massachusetts governor.

{mosads}Former Rep. Chuck Douglas (R-N.H.) issued a statement on the complaint after an Associated Press story Thursday night reported push polling in the state aimed at Romney’s Mormon faith and other characteristics.

Douglas said the campaign is “seeking a full investigation to determine who was behind the push poll,” and he called on the other GOP campaigns to join the complaint.

“These tactics are repugnant and despicable and there is no place in New Hampshire politics for push polling or any other negative tactics that engage in personal attacks,” Douglas said in a statement. “It is especially shameful that those responsible would hide behind a push poll to impugn a candidate’s faith.”

Push polling is a tactic in which a caller contacts a voter under the guise of a normal polling call, but asks loaded questions designed to bring attention to what are usually considered to be a candidate’s negative attributes.

McCain, who called the calls “cowardly acts,” was himself the target of extensive push polling during the 2000 primary in South Carolina. McCain mentioned that race in his statement.

“I was a target of these same tactics in South Carolina in 2000 and believe the American people deserve better from those who seek the high office of the presidency,” McCain said.

The AP reported that former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s (R) campaign also denied any involvement in the calls, which reportedly also took place in Iowa.

Matt Rhoades, a spokesman for Romney, told the AP: “Whatever campaign is engaging in this type of awful religious bigotry as a line of political attack, it is repulsive and, to put it bluntly, un-American.”