CHEYENNE - Six-term Rep. Barbara Cubin, R-Wyo., said in a letter to supporters that she's "nervous" about her Democratic opponent's chances of unseating her this fall.

Democrat Gary Trauner gave a copy of the letter to The Associated Press in a news conference Monday to challenge some of its claims. He also alleged that someone has been conducting a push poll in Wyoming on behalf of Cubin's campaign.

Cubin campaign spokesman Eric Cullen said Cubin was no more nervous this election than usual. He refused to say whether the poll was being done by Cubin's campaign, but he denied that the questions constituted a push poll - a poll that's designed more for influencing opinion than gathering information.

The letter was dated Sept. 5 and the Casper recipient's name was redacted. The letter said Trauner has been "knocking on over 13,000 doors across the state" and has been "a surprisingly good fundraiser."

"Until now, I knew that their coming into power was a threat but I didn't think Wyoming would elect a Democrat to Congress to help them do just that," the letter said.

"Now it appears I could be wrong and I'm nervous.

"My opponent, Gary Trauner, is emerging as one of their top candidates."

The letter said that Trauner, if elected, would "overturn the tax cuts and spend even more money at the federal level," as well as "put the environmentalists back in charge of our resource industries."

Trauner said the letter contained "demonstrably false" statements - especially the part about wanting, in the general sense, to overturn President Bush's tax cuts. He said he favored continuing "targeted" tax cuts that would boost the economy by helping the middle class.

The letter also claimed that Trauner supports a national gun registration system. He produced a copy of a National Rifle Association questionnaire in which he said he did not support a national registration system.

He did say in the NRA questionnaire that he supported "effective background checks on potential firearms owners" and that it was reasonable for authorities to have access to gun purchase records for "a reasonable period of time."

Cullin said Cubin wasn't unusually concerned about Trauner and this year's election.

"Mrs. Cubin, she's always said and she's fond of saying that she runs ever race as if she's one vote behind. This is no exception," Cullen said.

The alleged push poll, meanwhile, said Trauner is "pro-abortion and would legalize euthanasia," and that he supports amnesty for illegal immigrants, Trauner said.

He denied being in favor of legal euthanasia and amnesty for illegal immigrants.

"I want to make clear that you don't get to make stuff up just because you want to tarnish your opponent," he said.

He said about 15 supporters had received the same push poll calls within the past few weeks. He said his supporters asked who was doing the poll, but the caller wouldn't say.

Cullen said push polling is deceptive. "We don't condone it, we don't do it," he said.

"There's a clear difference in testing a contrasting message with the purpose of gathering data, and starting rumors with a push poll," he said.

"The difference is one is to gather data, the other is to start rumors and innuendo."

He said the poll questions didn't appear to be for the purpose of starting rumors. "Because as I read these, they sound like Gary Trauner's positions."