New Hampshire and Iowa residents have gotten phone calls lately planting negative ideas about Mitt Romney's Mormonism and military deferments he received while serving as a missionary during the Vietnam war, AP's Phil Elliott reports. The twenty-minute calls were made from Utah-based Western Wats, and though a spokesman denies they conduct push-polls he declined to comment on calls targeting Romney.

Romney's campaign, which has long had to deal with under-the-radar questions about the candidate's religion, quickly sent out a statement blasting the calls. "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," said communications director Matt Rhoades. "There is no excuse for these attacks."

Reports initially suggested the company, Western Wats, was somehow connected to Rudy Giuliani's campaign. The company has previously done work for The Tarrance Group, an Arlington, Virginia-based pollster that serves as Giuliani's top number crunchers. But Tarrance Group chief Ed Goeas vehemently denied the story and released an email between Western Wats and himself, in which the company reaffirms that the two are not working together, reports Jonathan Martin. Giuliani's campaign also denied involvement.

Rose Kramer, an Iowa voter who backs Romney, told Politics Nation the call, which she received around 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, began with typical screening questions on whether she planned to caucus and if she had caucused before. After an initial ballot test -- on which she says Romney's name was listed last -- the pollster offered five questions about John McCain, all of which she characterized as "glowing." Kramer said she asked the caller whether he was working for a campaign; he said no, his was an independent research group.

McCain's Iowa offices has received calls complaining of the push poll, though Iowa state director Jon Seaton said the senator disapproves of the style of campaigning and that the campaign had no involvement.

Romney's camp has long expected implied or direct mentions of his religion in early states, especially in evangelical-rich Iowa and South Carolina. Whisper campaigns and email chains have been passed around for months, though few have cropped up in national media. The push poll, the most dramatic example so far, is likely to further fan the flames of an increasingly nasty GOP race.

Update: McCain's campaign released a statement this morning from New Hampshire co-chairman and former Congressman Chuck Douglas: "Today, the McCain New Hampshire Leadership Committee intends to file a complaint with the New Hampshire Attorney General's office seeking a full investigation to determine who was behind the push poll. The Leadership Committee calls on all the other Republican campaigns to join us as parties to this complaint. 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. It is especially shameful that those responsible would hide behind a push poll to impugn a candidate's faith."

McCain added his thoughts, calling the push polls "cowardly acts." McCain urged his fellow Republicans to pledge not to engage in the same "despicable tactics" for the rest of the campaign, and said he was outraged that the calls would hide behind his name. "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," he said in a statement.