If you live in New Hampshire’s First Congressional District, you are represented in Congress by Republican Rep. Frank Guinta. But you might not know that; many people don’t know who their congressman is. Guinta is apparently hoping so.

In a recent campaign robocall, Guinta delivered this pitch for votes: “Hi. This is Frank Guinta, candidate for Congress, running against Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter. I’m running to end the broken culture of Washington.”

We suspect that a lot of voters will associate campaign tactics like this with “the broken culture of Washington.”

Obviously Guinta did not want to be associated with Congress, which had a whopping 12 percent approval rating in a CBS News/New York Times poll last month, the last poll to ask that question. He hoped to transfer that negative association to his opponent, former Rep. Carol Shea-Porter. But by pulling this stunt, Guinta has managed to wind up with a personal negative rather than the general one that applies to all members of Congress all the time in the eyes of so many voters. Smooth move.

The last University of New Hampshire poll to test this race showed that 33 percent of 1st District adults surveyed had no opinion of Guinta. Well, more of them will now.

It’s a shame because Guinta has racked up a lot of good votes in his one term in Congress, certainly a much better record than Comrade Carol Shea-Porter had. He showed himself to be a fiscally responsible check against President Obama’s over-spending, over-regulating agenda. He needs to be talking more about that, rather than explaining this silliness.