INSIDE THE CAMPAIGN

Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2006 | 7:31 a.m.

U.S. Rep. Jon Porter and Democratic challenger Tessa Hafen continue to slug it out in an increasingly ugly campaign that seems to be trending toward truth-stretching.

Hafen, in a seemingly overzealous attempt to capitalize on former Rep. Mark Foley's congressional page scandal, sent out a press release Thursday charging in bold print: "Jon Porter calls for Dennis Hastert to resign over GOP coverup of sexual predator e-mails."

Hafen went on to question Porter's commitment to seeing the House speaker ousted after some House members said they informed him months ago about Foley's inappropriate e-mails with teenage pages.

The problem: Porter never called for Hastert's resignation.

Jeff Gillian, the host of the show on which Hafen claims Porter called for the resignation, asked Porter: "So you would support, for example, if Dennis Hastert were shown not to have moved aggressively, should the speaker go?"

"Absolutely," Porter said.

"If they realized the depth and severity of the problem and took no action, or they stalled the process, they should be gone," Porter added.

In short, Hafen didn't mention Porter's big "if."

Porter's staff said last week he will not decide whether Hastert failed to move aggressively until federal authorities complete their investigation - something not likely to happen before the Nov. 7 election.

But if Hafen is guilty of stretching the truth, Porter is no less guilty.

Porter's recent television advertisement contains some dubious information about Hafen's positions on immigration.

The ad claims that she supports amnesty for identity theft, giving Social Security to immigrants for work they did illegally and paying illegal immigrants more than Americans for some jobs.

The logic, according to Porter's camp, is that the Senate immigration bill provides for those things, and Hafen said she supports that bill.

Hafen said Monday, though, that she does not support amnesty of any kind and that - while she supports comprehensive immigration reform - she does not support certain provisions in the Senate bill, including the one that would allow immigrants to collect Social Security for work done illegally.

There also is some debate about whether the Senate bill would allow immigrants to earn more pay than U.S. citizens.

Porter voted in favor of the enforcement-only House immigration bill, but has since said that he supports the approach outlined by President Bush, which includes a guest-worker program and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who clear a set of hurdles.

It's difficult to pin Porter down on his positions on immigration or anything else, though, because he won't speak with the Sun.

His office instituted a policy under which the Sun must send the congressman written questions to which he will respond in writing. The Sun insists on speaking directly to Porter on stories.

But the Sun is not the only paper on what appears to be Porter's media blacklist.

He has also refused to talk to Las Vegas CityLife since at least April 2005. Porter's staff said it was "office policy" not to talk to CityLife, said CityLife Editor Steve Sebelius.

And Las Vegas Review-Journal writer Erin Neff wrote a column in August that said Porter had not returned a phone call from her in three years.