The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has criticized former Congressman Ed Case for publicly releasing a private poll that shows U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono, a fellow Democrat, trailing former Gov. Linda Lingle in a hypothetical matchup for U.S. Senate.

Case, who is running against Hirono in the Democratic primary, released portions of a private poll on Monday that showed him up over Hirono in the primary and Lingle in the general election to replace U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, who is not seeking another term in 2012. The poll showed Hirono trailing Lingle.

"I understand the nature of primaries, but I don’t believe Mr. Case is being honest with this poll," Guy Cecil, executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said in a statement. "It exaggerates support for him and for Lingle. It also contradicts polling we have done in this race that shows Hirono leading Lingle by 19 points."

The DSCC, which helps elect Democrats to the Senate, has not made an endorsement in the primary. But Cecil’s comments, first reported in The Fix, a political blog by the Washington Post, involve unusual public criticism of one of the party’s candidates in a competitive race.

Case has alienated the party’s establishment before, particularly in his unsuccessful primary challenge to Akaka in 2006, and many establishment and traditional Democrats are moving toward Hirono.

Case said he does not believe this exchange puts him in a difficult position with the DSCC. "I’ve had good discussions with the DSCC, believe they have this race sized up realistically, and assume they’ll be updating their information and assessment throughout the campaign," he said in an email.

"As Guy said, he understands this is about the primary, and that’s the only election I’m in now. "

Case has trailed Hirono in early fundraising. His release of the poll results on Monday also included a fundraising appeal to potential donors.

A private poll taken earlier this year for the DSCC by the Mellman Group had Hirono with a significant lead over Lingle. A Hawaii Poll taken for the Star-Advertiser and Hawaii News Now in May showed both Case and Hirono up over Lingle.

"Any number of factors could account for the difference between the DSCC poll and this one, from sample to method," Case said in an email. "I don’t know when the DSCC poll was done, but time could be a big factor, as my sense is that this race has changed substantially in the last few months.

"One message of this poll is that national Dems should care very much about who is their nominee and should not take Hawaii for granted in the general."

Case’s poll was conducted by the Merriman River Group, a mainland firm that did polling last year for the Hawaii governor’s race and a special election for Congress.

Matthew Fitch, executive director of the Merriman River Group, said he is confident about the methodology the group uses in Hawaii and said the results are consistent with similar private polls done for Case. Merriman River conducts its surveys from automated telephone calls.

FITCH said it was Case’s decision to publicly release portions of the poll. "That’s his call. He owns the data," he said.

Lingle has said she will announce in the fall whether she will launch a Republican campaign for Senate. National Democrats, however, are already countering her claims that she would take a bipartisan approach.

"Hyper-partisan Linda Lingle is trying to hide her long record as a partisan bomb thrower in order to go to Washington and rubber stamp the extreme Republican agenda that would end Medicare and give tax breaks to oil companies," Matt Canter, a DSCC spokesman, said in a statement. "Lingle has a long history of carrying water for national Republicans like Sarah Palin and spreading their hyper-partisan attacks against President Obama. Lingle even accused President Obama of palling around with terrorists in the 2008 campaign. Now, Lingle is paying lip-service to ‘bipartisanship’ as she prepares for a U.S. Senate run in President Obama’s native state."