Apparent Huckabee Backers Smear McCain

Dec. 15, 2007— -- Bernie Campbell, a 26-year-old public school teacher in Laconia, N.H., was eating dinner at home Friday night with his wife, a graduate student at Dartmouth, when he got a phone call.

"Would you like to participate in a 60-second poll on the New Hampshire primary?" the automated voice asked.

Campbell, a West Lebanon, N.H., co-chair for the presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., figured what the heck, it was just 60 seconds.

After he told the automated caller that he intended to vote in the Jan. 8, 2008, New Hampshire GOP primary, that he considers himself pro-life, and that he intends to vote for McCain, the poll took on a decidedly negative tone, Campbell told ABC News.

"It was a series of questions that you would associate with a push poll," Campbell said, referring to the negative campaigning technique of pretending to be a pollster gathering information from voters when really the intention is to spread negative information about a rival.

The automated machine, which identified itself as being with Common Sense Issues, threw Campbell questions about whether he'd be less likely to support McCain if he knew the Arizona senator opposed a federal amendment to ban same sex marriage, or that he'd hurt the anti-abortion-rights cause by leading the charge for campaign finance reform.

Campbell said the call ended before he could even find a pen to start taking notes on what was being said, once he realized he was in the midst of some shady campaign tactics.

Earlier this month Common Sense Issues -- which is affiliated with supporters of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee -- set up an organization called Trust Huckabee, which began making calls in Iowa praising Huckabee and disparaging Huckabee's opponents.

McCain's New Hampshire campaign vice chairman, former Rep. Chuck Douglas, R-N.H., Saturday issued a statement demanding that Huckabee "immediately condemn these tactics and urge his supporters to stop this activity attempting to smear John McCain or any other candidate, and allow this campaign to be waged on the issues and each candidate's merits."