CHEYENNE - Republican leaders say a flier listing some of U.S. House hopeful Mark Gordon's political donations shouldn't have been distributed anonymously, but raises legitimate questions about a Republican candidate giving money to Democrats.

The flier detailed $6,500 that Gordon has given to Democratic candidates and the Democratic Central Committee over the last couple of years. Recipients included Wyoming U.S. House candidate Gary Trauner in 2006, and the Democratic National Committee, John Kerry and Wyoming U.S. House candidate Ted Ladd in 2004.

Records on the Federal Elections Commission Web site verify the donations - and show that Gordon also has been giving to Republicans. His Republican donations add up to nearly $8,000 over the past decade, including $6,000 since December.

Gordon said Tuesday he's given to Democrats in recent years to register a protest with the Republican Party over deficit spending and big government.

"The party kind of walked away from some of its core principles," Gordon said. "We've built a huge deficit. We're a huge debtor nation now. These are not core Republican principles."

He said he's been disappointed with Republican politics - "especially Washington Republican politics" - in recent years and expected that his Democratic donations would come out during his race for the Republican nomination.

"All of that stuff is a public record, and your history is your history. But what we're talking about here is your future," he said.

The flier, mailed in February, accused Gordon of being a "RINO" - an acronym for Republican in Name Only. The flier depicted Gordon between two Oscar trophies and said he gets a "Lifetime Achievement Award for Best Supporting Republican Role in the Democratic Party."

"Mark Gordon's many contributions to Democrats puts him more at home with the liberal Hollywood crowd than at home on the range with Wyoming Republicans!" the flier read. "Mark Gordon is not a friend of the Wyoming Republican Party."

Fred Parady, Wyoming Republican Party chairman, criticized the flier's anonymity.

"I regret the way in which it came out," Parady said. "But I think those kind of questions in a Republican primary, they're going to be legitimate for people to ask and have answered."

Bill Cubin, chairman of the Natrona County Republican Party, posted a statement on the county party's Web site in which he called the flier "a little immature and sneaky."

"Any campaign worth its salt, or who has competent people advising it, wouldn't pull a stunt like this," wrote Cubin, a son of Rep. Barbara Cubin, R-Wyo., who is not seeking re-election.

But Bill Cubin also wrote that Gordon's donations to Democrats are "relevant information for Republicans" before they vote in August - a point he repeated in a Tuesday interview.

"The message that it delivers is important. This is something that Republican voters need to know when deciding who to vote for," Cubin said.

The flier carried a return address with the same post office box as the Cheyenne Herald, a biweekly advocacy newspaper written and published by one person, Dave Featherly. Featherly also is campaign manager for another Republican House candidate, retired Navy officer Bill Winney.

Featherly's paper has reported on Gordon's Democratic contributions but said that neither he nor the Winney camp had anything to do with the mailing.

"That just isn't my style," Featherly said. "Why put it out anonymously?"

Featherly said the fliers carried Casper postmarks and about 40 were sent to his post office box in Cheyenne as undeliverable. Featherly also received in the post office box a letter from Michael Robinson, a senior assistant attorney general, saying state law prohibits corporations from aiding, promoting or preventing the nomination of any candidate.

Robinson said Tuesday that he sent the letter after someone brought the flier to his attention. He said he sent the letter without being aware of who was renting the post office box.

"It was more or less a courtesy to whoever owned that mailbox," he said.

He said he hadn't determined who sent the fliers.