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WASHINGTON - The New Hampshire attorney general has launched a preliminary inquiry into anonymous calls made to voters in the early primary state that raise critical questions about Mitt Romney's Mormon faith.
The calls, first reported by The Associated Press, ask voters whether they know Romney is a Mormon, that he received a draft deferment from Vietnam to serve a mission, that Mormons didn't allow blacks to hold the priesthood until the 1970s and the LDS Church views the Book of Mormon as superior to the Bible.
News reports say the calls in New Hampshire and Iowa also raised the issue of a Mormon temple ceremony known as baptism for the dead, defined the LDS Church as a cult and asked whether that would make a voter less likely to vote for Romney.
The calls reportedly were placed by Western Wats, an Orem-based survey-research firm.
Robert Maccabee, director of client service at the company, says the survey firm does not engage in push polling, a tactic that usually involves thousands of calls to potential voters with a disparaging message about a candidate or issue. He declined to discuss company clients or the survey calls reported in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Rose Kramer, a Romney supporter in Dubuque, Iowa, received a call on Tuesday evening that she said made her "very upset."
"After the phone call, I told my husband I was infuriated," Kramer said. "I don't know where it's coming from but it's just not called for at all. I just don't like it at all."
Marshan Roth, of Fairfield, Iowa, got a call on Wednesday night. It started out like a regular poll, she says, but then asked positive questions about Sen. John McCain and delved into disparaging things about Romney. She was asked whether she knew that Mormons have "baptized thousands of dead people" and that the Book of Mormon was more important than the Bible to Mormons.
"It was sick. It really was. It made me just furious," says Roth, who is leaning toward backing Romney. "If you didn't know enough about McCain, you'd think he was the white knight coming in on his charger saving the world and that Mitt Romney was tantamount to the devil."
McCain, through his campaign, said Friday it has nothing to do with the surveys.
"I am outraged by the cowardly telephone calls that hide behind my name in an effort to disparage one candidate and advance the candidacy of another," McCain said in a 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."
The Arizona Republican is referring to a whisper campaign in the 2000 race blasting him for purportedly having an illegitimate black child. In actuality, McCain had adopted a daughter from Bangladesh. McCain on Friday also asked for an investigation.
Romney's campaign was quick to denounce the anonymous poll.
"Whichever 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," Matt Rhoades, Romney's communications director, said in a statement.
"There is no excuse for these attacks. Gov. Romney is campaigning as an optimist who wants to lead the nation. These attacks are just the opposite. They are ugly and divisive."
After some critics suggested the Utah survey company had ties to Romney supporters, the campaign strongly denied any link to the anonymous poll.
"Emphatically, I reject any insinuation that we would support phone calls attacking our own campaign," said Romney campaign spokesman Kevin Madden. "That's underscored by the fact that we asked the New Hampshire attorney general to investigate the calls. As the campaign being targeted, we have the most important interest in finding out who is responsible."
New Hampshire Deputy Attorney General Orville "Bud" Fitch said Friday afternoon his office is looking into whether any state laws were violated with the poll, though a formal investigation has not been opened.
"At this point we're trying to make contact with those who received the calls to hear based on their recollection, whether questions posed qualify as a push poll," Fitch said.
New Hampshire law defines a push poll as a phone call on behalf of, in support of or against a candidate, where the caller asks questions about a candidate implying or conveying information about that person while under the guise of gathering polling information.
Former Rep. Chuck Douglas, a New Hampshire Republican and McCain supporter, invited other presidential campaigns to sign on to a formal complaint letter requesting an investigation.
"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. "It is especially shameful that those responsible would hide behind a push poll to impugn a candidate's faith."