Political calls are paid for by ???

An environmental group that earlier this week slammed Republican gubernatorial candidate Jon Huntsman Jr. won't say exactly who's footing the bills for telephone calls repeating their message to some 100,000 homes across the state.

"We could tell you who is paying for this," said Craig Axford, spokesman for the newly formed political action committee Concerned Utahns for a Healthy Future. "But I think people can judge the message on its own merits. Who's financing it is not relevant."

Axford said, however, the group will file that information with the state Elections Office before voters go to the polls Tuesday. And he said the bulk of the estimated $3,000 cost of the phone bank calls made Wednesday was paid by unidentified labor unions.

But because the group apparently didn't spend money until after the deadline Tuesday for the final financial disclosure statements before the election, state officials said they are not required to provide information about their contributors or spending until January.

Their tactics were condemned by the campaigns of both Huntsman and his Democratic opponent, Scott Matheson Jr. A letter requesting that the calls "immediately cease and desist" was hand-delivered to Axford's home Wednesday night by the Matheson campaign.

"People get confused. They attribute it to our campaign. I don't think it helps us," Matheson's campaign manager, Mike Zuhl, said. "I think it's negative campaigning and we don't want to have any association with it."

Huntsman's campaign manager, Jason Chaffetz, said he doesn't believe the Matheson camp "would resort to such dirty, sleazy tricks. . . . You have some radical faction out there that wants to take their personal potshots."

The group is telling voters that Huntsman should be held accountable for the pollution from his family's petrochemical plants in Texas. On Monday, they held a press conference with a family from Texas who is suing Huntsman Corp. because their daughter has asthma.

"I think it's important that the next governor, whether it's Jon Huntsman or Scott Matheson, be put on notice by the environmental community," Axford said. "We're going to be watching and holding them accountable."

Axford said the phone bank made calls to some 102,000 Utahns in swing districts throughout the state. He said more calls will be made if the group can come up with the money.

They are also funding the production of lawn signs that should have began appearing late Thursday. Axford said the signs will warn voters that "Huntsman did it in Texas, is Utah next" and direct them to the group's Web site, www.concernedutahns.org.