'Fund the police': Nikki Haley goes after Donald Trump over unpaid security costs in N.H.

WASHINGTON - Vying to become the top Republican alternative to Donald Trump, GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley went after the former president Monday on a state issue: reimbursing New Hampshire for security costs.

"Haley wants to make sure police and their families are paid - apparently, Donald Trump doesn’t care," said Ken Farnaso, a spokesman for the former South Carolina governor.

The Haley team brought up the issue amid polls showing that she and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis battling for second place in GOP primaries - both more than 45 percentage points behind Trump, according to an averaging of national polls by Real Clear Politics.

In going after the front-runner, the Haley campaign was responding to a Raw Story website piece detailing the latest on a long-running complaint against Trump: his campaign hasn't reimbursed local law enforcement costs of a Trump visit.

The Trump campaign reportedly owes $3,788 to New Hampshire law enforcement officials in Concord and another $12,870 to Manchester.

The Haley campaign said it has "paid $1,722 total to six New Hampshire police departments throughout July and August."

The Trump campaign did not comment on the reimbursement issue and mocked Haley's complaint. Using a Trump-given nickname, the campaign said in a statement that "Nikki is really living up to her nickname of “Birdbrain.”

In raising the reimbursement issue, Farnaso said "the Trump campaign has more than enough money to reimburse police for providing security at the few events he holds. It’s ridiculous to stiff law enforcement and ultimately stick taxpayers with the bill."

In recent days, the Haley and DeSantis campaigns have also exchanged insults, each trying to emerge as the consensus second place challenger to Trump.

The DeSantis campaign also hit at Trump on Monday.

It trumpeted the Florida governor's recent weekend in Iowa, part of his ongoing effort to visit all 99 counties in the state that opens the nomination process with caucuses on Jan. 15.

DeSantis and aides said Trump knows that the Florida governor is his biggest threat, and that's why he attacks him so much.

"This campaign has the resources and the organization needed to beat Donald Trump, which is exactly why he scrambling to counter the inroads the governor is making," the campaign said in a Monday statement.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Nikki Haley goes after Donald Trump over unpaid security costs in N.H.