Federal prosecutors reportedly intend to indict a fourth person in the jamming of Democratic get-out-the-vote telephone lines in 2002.
WMUR-TV reported Wednesday that an indictment is expected at the end of the month.
For those of you who don't know the story, there is an ongoing investigation of a GOP phone jamming scheme that cost the Democrats a US Senate seat in 2002. Manchester, which is NH largest city and is a Democratic stronghold, had low voter turn out in a number of Democratic City wards. It was later reveal that over 800 hang-up phone call that day jammed the GOTV phone lines set up by Democrats and a firefighters union. This cost Gov. Jeanne Shaheen critical votes in a heavily Democratic area. The biggest part of the story is that James Tobin one of the ring leaders of the crime worked for the election campaigns of Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe. Will someone in Maine please pick up this story and go after these guys. This could be the last straw that may finally replace those "Moderate Republicans" who live in a Blue State. Ask Collins and Snowe why they hired a crook!
From the March 2nd Union Leader (NH) Newspaper (
http://www.unionleader.com)
Former state Republican Executive Director Chuck McGee pleaded guilty to devising the idea of jamming the lines and served seven months in prison. Telemarketer Allen Raymond pleaded guilty to executing the plan and is to serve a three-month sentence.
James Tobin, who had served as New England chairman of President Bush's re-election campaign, was convicted in December of telephone harassment charges for his role. Tobin, 45, of Bangor, Maine, faces up to five years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000. His sentencing has been delayed until May. Meantime he seeks a new trial.
Tobin was accused of referring McGee to Raymond to carry out the plan.
"Unfortunately for Republicans, we don't see the light at the end of the tunnel yet, Democratic analyst Colin Van Ostern said. "This new indictment is one more sign that it wasn't just one or two people who concocted this the night before the election. It was a number of people at fairly high levels in their party who committed crimes to win an election -- and that is a pretty serious offense."
State Republican Vice Chairman Wayne MacDonald said the scandal has been a drag on the party and its activists.
"They're tired of hearing it, but everyone concerned will keep working," MacDonald said. "We'll get over this. The real issues right now are taxes, spending, good government."
Raymond, president of Virginia-based GOP Marketplace LLC, told the jury he talked to Tobin a couple of weeks before the election about a plan to disrupt New Hampshire Democrats' phone lines offering rides to the polls on Nov. 5, 2002.
Tobin , who did not testify during the trial, had worked in Maine and Washington for former Sen. William Cohen in the 1980s and worked on the election campaigns of Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe.
He stepped down as regional campaign chairman of President Bush's re-election campaign in October 2004 when Democrats charged in a lawsuit that he took part in the phone-jamming scheme.
Republicans have filed a countersuit alleging that the Democratic Party had "an ulterior and improper purpose" for suing as part of a national strategy to use courts to gain political advantage in 2004.
The 2002 election featured a high-profile U.S. Senate race between Republican John Sununu and Democratic former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen. Sununu won by about 20,000 votes.
More than 800 hang-up phone calls that day jammed get-out-the-vote phone lines set up by Democrats and a firefighters union.
This is just one more example of the Culture of Corruption. Lets see if we can get the National media to focus on this, and more specifically the Maine media, I for one want to see the end of Collins and Snowe! Lets ask Collins and Snowe what services Mr. James Tobin supplied to them..........