Manchester Mayor Frank Guinta (R) has filed paperwork to run against Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D), who the National Republican Congressional Committee has indicated will be one of their top targets in 2010.

The 38-year-old Republican is not as well-known in the district, but a recent University of New Hampshire poll showed Guinta and Shea-Porter drew relatively similar favorable marks among those who know them.

Guinta had a 30 percent favorable/8 percent unfavorable rating among voters, while 63 percent of survey respondents in the 1st district said they were neutral or they didn’t know the mayor well enough to have an opinion. Shea-Porter has a 38 percent favorable/37 percent unfavorable rating among the same sample, with 27 percent saying they they didn’t known enough to have an opinion of her.

The survey of 261 district adults April 13-22 had a margin of error of 6 points.

Shea-Porter first won the seat in 2006, when she defeated then-Rep. Jeb Bradley (R) in an upset victory. She defeated Bradley again in a 2008 rematch with 52 percent of the vote.