Updated: 3:24 p.m.

Embattled Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.) is inundating Orlando-area voters with automated telephone calls touting the underdog in next week’s Sunshine State Democratic primary.

“Democrat Clint Curtis wants to protect Social Security and provide free, no-fault health care to all Americans,” the automated call begins. “Clint Curtis is the only Democrat taking on Tom Feeney that has consistently opposed the war in Iraq. … In 2006, Clint Curtis was endorsed by the Daytona Beach News-Journal as the best person to serve you in Congress.”

Curtis, who lost to Feeney last cycle after being outspent almost 20-1, faces the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee-preferred nominee, former state Rep. Suzanne Kosmas, next Tuesday.

Feeney discloses in the recording that his campaign committee is footing the bill. Spokeswoman Pepper Pennington said that “there’s no strategy” behind the calls, “we just thought it was important to point out that Clint Curtis is the only candidate in the Democratic race that has been consistent on Iraq in the last several years.”

Kosmas’ campaign denounced the calls on Tuesday.

“Feeney’s desperate tactics make it obvious that he is scared to face Suzanne Kosmas in November because he knows that she shares the priorities of the people in this district and would serve them better in Congress, working to lower gas prices and create new, high-paying jobs,” Kosmas campaign manager Paul Dunn said in a statement.

Kosmas has outraised Feeney in the last two fundraising quarters, and reports that the Congressman attended a golf outing in Scotland paid for by incarcerated former lobbyist Jack Abramoff have made the Florida seat a prime Democratic pickup opportunity.