Attorney general to investigate push polling

Mitt Romney's campaign said this afternoon that New Hampshire's attorney general has agreed to conduct an "expedited investigation" into alleged "push polling" phone calls aimed at Romney.

"I think the attempts to attack me on the basis of my faith are un-American," Romney said at a press conference in Nevada. (Watch the full press conference above.)

Romney said its campaign chairman in New Hampshire, US Senator Judd Gregg, received assurances from Attorney General Kelly Ayotte's office about the investigation. "General Ayotte requested the names of individuals who received the calls, and the Romney campaign is cooperating in providing all relevant information it has," campaign spokesman Matt Rhoades said in a statement.

"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," Rhoades continued. "There is no excuse for these attacks. Governor Romney is campaigning as an optimist who wants to lead the nation. These attacks are just the opposite. They are ugly and divisive."

New Hampshire law requires the all political advertising, including phone calls, identify the candidate being supported. No candidate was identified in the calls.

John McCain, one of Romney's rivals for the Republican nomination, had also called earlier today for an investigation, describing the calls as "especially shameful" because they impugned Romney's Mormon faith.

The Associated Press first reported Thursday night that residents in New Hampshire and Iowa have received phone calls raising questions about Romney, his Mormon faith, and the Vietnam War-era military deferments he received while serving as a missionary in France. It identified Western Wats, a Utah-based company, as the source of the calls. The company would not say whether it made the calls, but denied it does "push polling."

"I call on all other candidates and their supporters to repudiate these attacks and join me in pledging not to engage in such despicable tactics throughout the balance of this campaign," McCain said in a statement. "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 knows of what he speaks. In 2000, he was riding high after winning the New Hampshire primary, but in South Carolina, voters received calls suggested that McCain had an illegitimate black child. George W. Bush won that primary and went on to the nomination and the presidency. The source of the calls was never confirmed.