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PHOENIX — A "push poll" attacking Republican gubernatorial hopeful Len Munsil has forced the candidate, who has lobbied on moral issues for more than a decade, to admit he and his wife, Tracy, conceived a child before they were married.

In a statement late Friday, Munsil conceded the couple's oldest son was conceived after they were engaged but before they were married 20 years ago.

"We regret the timing of our son's conception, but we have never regretted the outcome," Munsil said.

Munsil founded and ran the Center for Arizona Policy, an organization that lobbied for "restoring traditional moral principles" and has as one of its goals the support of school programs that promote sexual abstinence before marriage.

He was a key architect of a measure on the November ballot to reserve marriage and its benefits solely for those of the opposite sex.

But Munsil said the pre-marital pregnancy only convinced him and his wife that "keeping the standard is better for marriage, for families, for children and for relationships."

The unusual admission came after an unknown group began a "push poll," designed not to gauge attitudes but to alter them by asking sometimes hypothetical questions.

One question asked whether a voter would support Munsil if they knew he had said God allowed the 9/11 terrorist attacks to happen, a statement he did make.

The second queried whether the person would support Munsil knowing he had a child out of wedlock. A third question asked if someone would back Don Goldwater, another GOP contender, knowing he wants to build a wall along the Arizona border with Mexico.

Goldwater denied being behind the poll. So did Gary Tupper and Mike Harris, the other Republicans, as did incumbent Janet Napolitano and the Arizona Democratic Party.