Sen. Hillary Clinton intensified her critique of Sen. Barack Obama yesterday, continuing to question his readiness to lead and his voting record, while also trying to draw him into a dispute over election law.

Clinton's campaign yesterday accused Obama of violating state law with a prerecorded phone call his campaign made to voters. However, the state law the Clinton campaign cited may not apply to presidential primaries.

The call, by Wendy Frosh, chairwoman of the board of Planned Parenthood in Northern New England, touts Obama's pro-choice record and accuses Clinton of "smear" tactics.

In a conference call with reporters, Clinton's New Hampshire campaign co-chairwoman, Kathy Sullivan, accused the Obama campaign of violating New Hampshire election laws.

"The last place that I would expect to see games being played and the rules not being followed when it comes to telephones is in the Democratic primary," Sullivan said.

But according to state law, the chapter Sullivan cited does not apply to presidential primaries.

"What's remarkable is they promoted a point of view directly contrary to the express order of this law," said Bob Bauer, general counsel to the Obama campaign.

In the call, Frosh says, "Barack has a 100 percent pro-choice record and has always been a champion for women's rights. Hillary Clinton's last-minute smears won't protect the right to choose."

Sullivan said the calls appear to violate state statute because they were made to voters on the federal do-not-call registry and also failed to identify their sponsor - Obama for America - in a timely manner.

She cited state law that prohibits calls with recorded political messages from being made to voters on the do-not-call list, even though federal law exempts political calls from those restrictions.

The Obama campaign does try not to call those on the federal list. Last night, New Hampshire Obama campaign co-chairman Ned Helms said in a prepared statement, "Our vendor has assured us that he scrubbed the list for people on the Do Not Call registry. However, if this call went to someone who should not have received it, we will make sure the vendor takes every step to make sure this doesn't happen again."

But Bauer said the state law doesn't apply and even if it did, it would be preempted by federal restrictions, since this is a federal election.

Sullivan dismissed the possible federal exemption. "Let's not play legalistic games of saying the federal law might say this," Sullivan said. "We have New Hampshire laws, (and) they need to be followed."

Sullivan also cited a state law that requires that the group paying for calls disclose its identity within the first 30 seconds of the message. In a recording of the call, posted on the website Politico, the Obama campaign took 38 seconds to include the disclosure.

But both those state laws fall under the same chapter, which explicitly does not apply to presidential primaries.

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