New Hampshire investigating anti-Romney calls

BOSTON (Reuters) - The New Hampshire attorney general's office said on Friday it was investigating suspicious telephone calls to voters highlighting Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney's Mormon faith in an apparent effort to erode his support.

Romney denounced the calls -- part of a tactic known as "push polling" -- as "un-American." Similar phone calls were also reported in Iowa.

In push polls, callers pretend to be conducting public opinion surveys and then provide negative information about a candidate.

Iowa and New Hampshire traditionally holds the country's first presidential nominating votes, and success there can help candidates build momentum in the White House race.

Rival Republican candidate, Arizona Sen. John McCain, notified New Hampshire officials of the calls. McCain was the victim of similar negative tactics in South Carolina's presidential primary in 2000.

"We received a complaint from the McCain campaign this afternoon and we are conducting an inquiry at this juncture to ascertain as to the veracity of the allegations," said Jim Kennedy, assistant attorney general in a telephone interview, adding that the probe would take some time.

A state legislator in Iowa, Ralph Watts, said he received a call and was asked whether he would be more or less likely to vote for Romney because he is a Mormon. The caller did not identify on whose behalf he was calling.

Watts said the last half of the call included questions about McCain showing him in a positive light as a former prisoner of war in Vietnam. But Watts said he did some checking and "I'm convinced John McCain had nothing to do with it."

Push polling carries a civil penalty of up to $1,000 in New Hampshire and can be prosecuted as a felony if carried out by a corporate entity, Kennedy said.

McCain called on other candidates and their supporters to repudiate the attacks and "join me in pledging not to engage in such despicable tactics."

"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," he said in a statement.

The campaigns of Republicans Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson also rejected the tactics.

"There is no room for this sort of thing in politics," said Giuliani spokeswoman Katie Levinson. Thompson spokesman Todd Harris called it "smut" and "robo-dial bigotry."

If elected, Romney would be the country's first Mormon president. Mormon leaders have spent decades countering critics who dismiss the faith as a cult and a threat to Christianity.

In an interview on CNBC, former Massachusetts Gov. Romney denounced the campaign. He noted that Americans would be celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday, marking the founding of a nation based on religious freedom, next week.

"People came here to seek religious freedom. And on this week of all weeks for a campaign or supporters of a campaign to be launching attacks on another candidate because of his religion, it's as un-American as I can imagine," Romney said.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as the sect based in Salt Lake City, Utah, is formally known, is the fourth-largest U.S. religion and one of the richest, with 12.9 million members globally.

(Additional reporting by Kay Henderson in Des Moines, Jason Szep in Boston and Steve Holland in Washington)