About 102,000 targeted Utahns received telephone calls Wednesday night warning that Utah's environment could be in danger if Huntsman is elected.

"The Huntsmans have messed with Texas. Is Utah next?" the automated call says.

The campaigns of Huntsman and Democrat Scott Matheson Jr. denounced the political action committee responsible, "Concerned Utahns for a Healthy Future" and its ads.

Craig Axford, the head of the hastily formed group, refuses to disclose the source of several thousand dollars in donations used to pay for the phone calls, hundreds of lawn signs being readied for placement, and the travel and lodging expenses of a Texas plaintiffs' attorney and a family who were featured in a news conference Monday to assail Huntsman for his family's environmental track record in Jefferson County.

"We have nothing to do with them, and we don't approve of them," said Matheson campaign manager Mike Zuhl. "All we realistically believe we can do is express strong disapproval and request that they not do anything like this."

Zuhl added he made that request in a letter hand-delivered to Axford.

Huntsman campaign manager Jason Chaffetz said he was satisfied Matheson had no involvement.

"Voters are smart enough to know how suspicious things are in the last hours and days of the campaign," said Chaffetz. "But we have more important things to do than try to chase down these hoodlums."

Axford during his group's anti-Huntsman news conference Monday said he would disclose his group's financial backers in reports filed Tuesday with the state elections office.

Instead, he filed a letter stating the news conference expenses were picked up by an anonymous individual not affiliated with the group. Axford also declined to identify who paid the estimated $4,000 bill for the automated phone calls and 350 lawn signs, claiming he was hesitant to do so until pledged donations actually were received.

"I would like this to be about the issues that we've raised. I understand the media and members of the public may be concerned about how this is playing out and about who is giving what," said Axford. "But our focus until [Election Day] is corporate money and holding people accountable."