THURSDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE: A self-described conservative “issues advocacy group” says it has begun automated “robo-calls“ critical of the state’s two Democratic U.S. House members.

Freedom’s Watch says its calls allege that Reps. Carol Shea-Porter and Paul Hodes are “standing between Americans and increased domestic energy production.”

The automated calls note that President Bush this week lifted a ban on offshore drilling and criticize Congress for taking no action “to relieve the pain Americans are feeling from soaring gas prices.”

The calls say that “the only thing standing between us and billions of barrels of American oil are Democrats in Congress.”

The calls also say that while in Congress, Shea-Porter and Hodes “opposed efforts to increase domestic production 20 times” and sided with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The non-profit group says the two New Hampshire representatives have “become rubber stamps for “the negligent leadership in Congress" and urge listeners to call Hodes and Shea-Porter at their local offices.

Hodes, D-N.H., said this afternoon through a spokesman, "Freedom's Watch has a history of half truths and misleading attacks. . . . (I support) drilling right now on the millions of acres of available on and offshore federal land including 20 million acres on the NationalPetroleum Reserve in Alaska."

BEHIND THE NUMBERS. Democratic Rep. Carol Shea-Porter is the political story of the week with her huge second quarter fund-raising numbers. She's an example of what the incumbency can do for someone who was a political unknown two years ago.

In 2006, Shea-Porter was barely scraping together enough money to operate her skin and bones campaign and was the underdog in a primary race against former New Hampshire House Democratic Leader Jim Craig, who had the backing of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Today, she has $750,000 in her campaign bank after raising $260,275 in the second quarter and $921,736 in the election cycle thus far.

About one-third of her total "take"-- $91,000 -- came from political committees, mostly from labor union PACs.

In the quarter, she received $2,500 from the AFL-CIO, $3,000 from the United Auto Workers, $5,000 from the NEA, $5,000 from the American Federation of Teachers, and $5,000 from the Service Employees International Union.

A large portion of her contributions from individuals are channeled through well-known liberal conduits, such as ActBlue, Council for a Livable World and MoveOn.org. She also received thousands from fellow Democratic congressional campaign committees and leadership PACs, including $5,000 from California Rep. Henry Waxman's LA PAC.

Still, $74,856 of her $168,939 in total contributions from individuals were unitemized contributions of less than $250.

BRADLEY SELF-INVESTING. Republican Jeb Bradley dipped into his own wallet and reserves to pay his campaign bills in the past three months.

He loaned his campaign another $50,000, bringing the total in loans from himself to $200,000 since 2004. Bradley still spent more than he raised in the quarter.

His loan aside, Bradley raised $63,368 from individuals and $35,150 from PACS, for a total of $98,518. Add the loan and "other receipts" and his total receipts are $148,526 -- still about $40,000 less than he spent.

Luckily for Jeb, he had plenty of money in the bank entering the quarter, and ended the quarter with $475,348 on hand.

Of Jeb's $189,283 in quarterly expenditures, $74,040 went to media guru Pat Griffin's Merrimack & Potomac Group, while $42,300 went to Primary Communications, a consulting firm headed by his former congressional chief of staff, Deb Vander Beek.

Since the November 2006 election, Bradley's campaign has somehow spent $533,312.

Shea-Porter has spent $283,5639 and Bradley's main primary rival, John Stephen, has spent $218,448 including $139,205 in the quarter.

Stephen also spent more than he raised, but only by $1,000. His received $136,905 from individuals, $1,311 in "other receipts" and $1,000 from one PAC, the Washington-based Arab American Leadership Council.

His campaign's total receipts for the quarter were $138,216. It spent $139,205.

Stephen's biggest expenditures were $46,700 to Maryland-based MH Media LLC and $20,700 in consulting fees for Riverbank Communications. He also paid McLaughlin and Associates of New York $5,250 for polls in late June.

HODES' BIG MONEY. We reported last week on the nuts and bolts of Rep. Paul Hodes' second quarter filing but we can now provide some detail.

Of Hodes $254,905 in total receipts, $139,190 came from individual contributions and $112,750 came from PACs, including those representing the insurance, banking, investment, utility and architectural industries.

He also received thousands from labor PACS and fellow House Democrats.

His individual donors included a large percentage from out-of-state, including New York friend, former Gov. Mario Cuomo, who gave $500.

Hodes spent $114,167 in the quarter and $710,760 so far in the election cycle. He paid Anzalone Liszt Research, Inc. of Alabama $18,500 in May for polling and Renee Schaeffer of Washington $7,500 for "financial consulting services."

The four major 2nd District Republicans candidates combined raised a total of $130,000 in the quarter, loans from the candidates to their campaigns aside.

Grant Bosse says he's not worried about having only $12,850 on hand because his is a shoe leather operation, going door to door. And in his latest effort to show he's the only true conservative in the race, Bosse, beginning Monday, will outline 50 cuts to federal spending in the remaining 50 days of the primary campaign.

Jennifer Horn's camp reports "strong" fund-raising numbers for the quarter, but much of it comes from her own pocket.

Horn raised $60,605, but $25,000 comes from a loan she made to her campaign. She received $33,824 from individuals and no PAC money.

So far in the campaign, Horn has total receipts of $131,723, with $40,000 of it - or 30 percent - in personal loans.

She spent $70,236 in the quarter and $110,978 so far in the campaign and reported having $20,745 on hand.

In the quarter, she paid Riverbank Communications $6,300 for political consulting.

Horn ended the quarter with only $1,867 more on hand than candidate Jim Steiner of Concord, who raised $9,876 and spent $1,578 in the quarter.

With $156,556, Bob Clegg has far more money on hand than his GOP competitors. His campaign is mostly self-financed -- $250,000 of his $334,526 in total receipts so far in the campaign, or three-quarters of it, has come from loans from himself. He has also made contributions totaling $7,500, leaving $64,610 from individuals and $12,400 from PACs.

In the second quarter, he received $47,760 from individuals.

Clegg spent $143,650 in the quarter and $177,969 in the campaign so far. In the quarter, he paid Griffin's Merrimack & Potomac Group $45,500 for media consulting and $42,280 to Primary Communications for political consulting.

THE SUNUNU MONEY. The Status first reported a week ago that Sen. John Sununu's quarterly fund-raising of $1.1 million and his $5.1 million cash on hand were records for his campaigns.

Today, we can tell you that in the quarter, Sununu raised $761,605 from individuals, $317,480 from PACs and $17,500 from political party committees.

His campaign spent $337,757 in the second three months of the year.

We also reported last week that Jeanne Shaheen raised $1.8 million and would report $1.9 million on hand. No details of her report are yet public.

PHONE-JAM TALKS. Earlier this month we reported that a U.S. House subcommittee had subpoenaed the federal Justice Department for information "relating to the approval, scope and timing" of a federal probe of the GOP's 2002 phone-jam operation.

It was on a list of 21 items related to six investigations being undertaken by the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law. The most prominent probe is the Valerie Plame leak investigation.

Regarding phone-jamming, committee aides have told the Status that while the documents have not yet been produced, negotiations are under way between committee and department staffs, and there have been "renewed efforts" by the Justice Department to locate documents on the phone jamming case.

Committee aides also say President George W. Bush's assertion of executive privilege yesterday covers only certain material in the Plame case and not the entire subpoena. That means the phone-jamming case is still alive.

THE OBAMA PRESS TEAM. We first reported late last week on UnionLeader.com that Barack Obama's presidential media team for New Hampshire is in place.

Sandra Abrevaya is the new state communications director, coming to the campaign from Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin's Capitol Hill office. She is a former communications director for Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, and previously worked for the political communications firm, Strategy Group, based in Chicago.

The campaign will work a new voter contact organization funded by the Democratic National Committee, called the New Hampshire Campaign for Change.

Its press secretary is Larkin Barker, former spokesman for Rhode Island Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts and for Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse's 2006 campaign.

EVAN SIGNS ON. Gov. John Lynch continued building his reelection staff by hiring Evan Carlson of Bedford as campaign press secretary. He is the former press secretary for Sen. Joe Biden's presidential campaign. Following the primary, he consulted for New Hampshire Voices for Health and the Young Democrats of New Hampshire.

Previously, he was press secretary for the New Hampshire Democratic Party.

Carlson said Lynch's campaign now has 10 full-time staffers. It formally opened its campaign office 379 Elm St., Manchester, on Tuesday.

UNDER ONE ROOF. The former Chris Dodd for President office space at 379 Elm St., Manchester, has become a Democratic enclave. Officially opening on Monday, it will house Shea-Porter's campaign, the Senate Democratic Caucus campaign operation, the Committee to Elect House Democrats, the Manchester City Democratic Committee, the party's coordinated campaign field office as well as the Lynch office.

Various big name Democrats will attend a grand opening on Monday.

BIG DONORS. While relatively unknown in political circles, members of the Ayasli family of Nashua have quietly been huge donors to candidates on both sides of the political aisle for several years.

According to BusinessWeek.com, Yalcin Ayasli founded the Hittite Microwave Corp. of Chelmsford, Mass., in 1985 and was its chairman until 2005. A native of Turkey, Ayasli has also contributed to the Turkish Coalition USA PAC, which advances Turkish causes on Capitol Hill.

OpenSecrets.org lists political contributions of $91,250 from Ayasli during the current two-year election cycle, fairly evenly split between Democrats and Republicans. When other family members are included, the Ayaslis donations total more than $314,000 in 2007 and 2008.

According to OpenSecrets, the only local politician to received Ayasli donations in the past two years was Democratic former U.S. Senate candidate Katrina Swett.

Interestingly, family members made almost equal contributions to the National Republican Congressional Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

QUICK TAKES:

-- Shaheen's campaign announced late last week it has a new campaign manager. Robby Mook, who worked on Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign in Nevada, Ohio and Indiana, replaced Bill Hyers, who left for "personal reasons," according to the campaign. Mook was New Hampshire deputy field director for Howard Dean's 2004 presidential run.

-- District 18 GOP state Senate challenger Doug Kruse will roll out a finance committee tomorrow comprising prominent Manchester Republicans Ben Gamache, Cliff Hurst, Ovide Lamontagne, Gordon MacDonald, Jim Merrill, Ray Pinard, Siobhan Tautkus and Jerry Thibodeau. Former Mitt Romney campaign staffer Kristy Roney, viewed as a "rising star," is his campaign manager.

-- Horn this week picked up the endorsement of Rep. Jane Johnson, R-Swanzey.

-- Before coming to New Hampshire on Tuesday, John McCain will be hosted by former President George H.W. Bush at Walker's Point in Kennebunkport, according to campaign adviser Steve Duprey.

John DiStaso is senior political reporter of the New Hampshire Union Leader.