The New Hampshire Union Leader’s John DiStaso has the scoop:

MAHONEY UP IN POLL. Mahoney leads the primary field in the most recent poll of the 1st District Republicans.

The conservative Americans for Prosperity hired pollster Cross Target, headed by former state GOP executive director Steve DeMaura. The pollster on Tuesday asked 369 likely Republican primary voters for their preferences.

According to AFP executive director Corey Lewandowski, Mahoney led with 32.6 percent, Guinta was backed by 25.9 percent, Rich Ashooh drew 9.9 percent and Bob Bestani drew 5.1 percent with 26.5 percent undecided.

Government spending was picked as the top issue facing the nation by 35.4 percent, with jobs at 22.4 percent and the national debt at 12.3 percent.

Republican Congressional hopeful Sean Mahoney says this has really been more of a “cruel summer” because of the Obama administration’s policies. His campaign has released a web video to that effect:

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Judge Bolton’s decision today is unfortunate and unfair.

The federal government’s inability and unwillingness to secure the U.S. border with Mexico has left Gov. Jan Brewer and the state of Arizona with no choice but to take matters into its own hands and defend its border using its own resources. Now along comes a federal judge who says they can’t even do that. It’s unacceptable. If the Obama administration won’t enforce the current laws on the books then congressional action through the power of the purse strings and executive branch oversight must come in to play.

I support Gov. Brewer and the state of Arizona. We need to secure the border with an impenetrable fence to shut down the flow of illegal immigrants to zero.

Mahoney has been a consistent supporter of Arizona’s approach to border security:

Foster’s has the story:

EXETER — Republican congressional candidate Sean Mahoney will travel to downtown Exeter today as part of a campaign initiative focusing on the important role small businesses play in the country’s economy.

Mahoney — a Portsmouth resident and small business owner — is slated to walk the downtown as part of a “Road map to Recovery: Small Business, Big Jobs Tour” aimed at highlighting his belief that Washington, D.C., lawmakers have neglected Main Street.

The District 1 congressional candidate is slated to meet with Russell Prescott, the president of R.E. Prescott Co., Inc. at 10:30 a.m. at 10 Railroad Ave. and proceed to meet with other business owners.

Mahoney will discuss financial regulatory reform legislation, which he believes will expand the policy of “big bank bailouts.”

The tour is part of a series of events designed to highlight Mahoney’s campaign’s central focus, which is the need to create more, better-paying jobs through lower taxes, less government spending and less onerous regulations.

Mahoney has indicated he is building a grassroots campaign that will seek to draw on the support of small business owners who feel neglected by those currently serving in Washington.

There’s only one problem. Let Nashua Telegraph state house reporter Kevin Landrigan tell it:

A review of the video reveals Mahoney didn’t make that remark.

Mahoney was indignant:

“I’ve never said that, would never have said that, and I think this incredible distortion tells you all you need to know about the strategy of the Democratic Party,’’ Mahoney said.

“They want to send up smokescreens so the voters don’t pay attention to what matters in this race, and that is the out-of-control tax and spending record of Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter.’’

This is the second false Democrat attack this week. Recall that FactCheck.org claimed earlier this week that second District Rep. and Senate Hopeful Kelly Ayotte “deleted the truth,” in his new attack on Republican Kelly Ayotte.

Democratic Rep. Carol Shea-Porter claims to support government transparency. But when a reporter from the New Hampshire Union Leader asked her for information about lists of students she obtained – lists that violate policy in at least one district – she called in the lawyers to erect a wall of silence.

At issue is a question reporter John DiStaso appears to have ask Shea-Porter’s office numerous times: How many school districts’ graduates received unsolicited, taxpayer-funded congratulatory letters from Shea-Porter? The question is important because in Manchester, as DiStaso uncovered, those lists of graduating students aren’t supposed to go to anyone without authorization of the superintendent:

After a week-long search, Manchester’s superintendent of schools has found a nine-year-old district policy that was apparently unknowingly violated when at least one high school principal approved the release of his students’ home addresses to U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter.

“Neither the Board of School Committee nor any of its employees or agents shall release or distribute students’ names and addresses,” says the policy, approved by the board in December 2001 and provided to the New Hampshire Union Leader on Friday by Superintendent Thomas Brennan.

The policy continues, “When requests are made for such lists, the Principal shall consult with the Superintendent or his/her designee, who may waive such policy if the request contains limited, but reasonable extenuating circumstances.”

Brennan confirmed that whoever released graduating seniors’ addresses to Shea-Porter for her congratulatory letters violated the policy. He said the district office received no request for the release of the information and did not approve it.

DiStaso is still trying to figure out how many other school districts received the letters so that he can determine whether they, too, violated school districts’ policies. DiStaso even filed a right to know letter:

On Friday, the Union Leader sought that information in a Freedom of Information Act request to Shea-Porter chief of staff Naomi Andrews.

Although the Freedom of Information Act does not apply to members of Congress, Union Leader attorney Gregory Sullivan said Shea-Porter’s office should supply the information to a newspaper trying to do its job under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

“We are the citizenry and they are our public servants,” Sullivan said. “They do have a duty to respond to the citizens they represent.”

But Shea-Porter assistant counsel Katherine McCarron responded that since FOIA excludes Congress, “Accordingly, the Congresswoman is not subject to the Act and must decline to produce the information you requested.

It’s a curious posture for Shea-Porter to take. She has spent a good portion of her political career condemning the alleged non-transparency of the previous administration in Washington and on her website is a quote from President Harry Truman that reads, “Secrecy and a free, democratic government do not mix.”

“After engaging in a multi-trillion dollar spending spree that has imperiled the U.S. economy, Carol Shea-Porter and Nancy Pelosi now say they won’t even try to pass a federal budget,” Mahoney said in a statement. “But they aren’t being honest about why: There’s no money. And in order to pass a budget the liberals in Washington will need to either raise taxes again or borrow trillions more. Their failure is a betrayal of our trust.”

Mahoney mocked Shea-Porter for having criticized so-called Republican budget “gimmicks” in the past while failing to pass one this year.

“[S]he’s stumbled upon the mother of all gimmicks: Just don’t pass a budget at all. It’s irresponsible, it’s shameful and it’s a betrayal,” Mahoney said.

“Carol Shea-Porter owes the families of New Hampshire an apology,” Mahoney concluded. “She promised to be something different in Washington. She told us she would work toward a ‘responsible’ budget that met our nation’s needs. Instead she and Nancy Pelosi broke the bank on ObamaCare, a failed stimulus and auto bailouts and dropped the ball on the budget.”

Mahoney is running in a multi-candidate Republican primary for the right to take on Shea-Porter in the General Election.

The Guinta campaign shrugged off the Gatsas endorsement in public, noting only that as a Manchester alderman, Gatsas hadn’t approved of the lower spending budgets that Guinta had proposed when he was Manchester mayor.

But The Sunday Telegraph has obtained the copy of an e-mail sent by a Guinta staffer commiserating about losing Gatsas to Mahoney in which the tagline is, “Subject: Gatsas (jerk!)’’

Sounds like it was personal, doesn’t it?

Indeed, it does sound personal. Perhaps Guinta will reign in the offending staffers, especially after a previous staff-inspired debacle, the fake anti-Mahoney Facebook profile that lasted all of about twenty minutes, left egg on his campaign’s face.