GOP consultant convicted of telephone harassment during election

A Republican political consultant from Maine who has been a leading fund-raiser for President Bush was found guilty of telephone harassment yesterday by a federal jury in New Hampshire in connection with an Election Day plot to disrupt Democratic operations during a 2002 Senate race.

James Tobin of Bangor, a former official of the Republican National Committee, was acquitted of the most serious charge against him, interfering with voters' rights. He faces a maximum penalty of 7 years in prison when he is sentenced in March.

The charges stemmed from his role in a Republican plot to bombard Democratic Party offices in New Hampshire with hang-up calls on Nov. 5, 2002, as the state's governor, Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat, faced off against US Representative John Sununu, a Republican, for an open Senate seat.

Prosecutors said Tobin played a vital part in the operation, by connecting the man who hatched the plan -- former New Hampshire Republican Party executive director Chuck McGee -- to the man with the technical know-how to make the scheme happen, Allen Raymond, a former Virginia teleservices executive. Both previously pleaded guilty to the scheme; McGee served seven months in prison, and Raymond is awaiting sentencing.

During his long-awaited trial in US District Court in Concord, Tobin's fate hinged largely on testimony from the other two men.

Lawyers for Tobin argued that their client did not know the details of the plan to jam Democrats' phones when he suggested that McGee call Raymond, his former colleague, for help hiring a phone bank. Tobin's lawyers also cast doubt on statements by Raymond, suggesting that his testimony was driven by a desire to lighten his own sentence, due to be handed out later this month.

The regional political director for the Republican National Committee in 2002, Tobin later served as New England chairman of the Bush reelection campaign. He resigned from that post in October 2004 after the phone-jamming accusations were made public.

Kathy Sullivan, chairwoman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, said the trial made clear that Tobin's role was crucial.

Tobin ''could have stopped it just by saying a word, and he didn't," she said.

For more than an hour that Election Day, Democratic volunteers across the state were frustrated: Their phones kept ringing, but when they answered, no one was there. At the Manchester office, 309 hang-up calls came in between 7:47 and 9:09 a.m., for example, according to a government brief. Unable to call voters and remind them to go to the polls, Democrats reported the problem to the phone company and police.

The hang-ups stopped before midday, after then-state Republican Party chairman John Dowd canceled the phone-jam operation. Police traced the calls to a telemarketing center in Idaho that had been hired for the job by Raymond.

McGee and Raymond both resigned from their jobs in the aftermath.

Shaheen and other Democrats, meanwhile, lost the election.

''We had a county attorney who lost by less than 100 votes that day," Sullivan said. ''Were there 100 people who didn't vote because of it? We'll never know."

New Hampshire Democrats have filed a civil lawsuit against Tobin, Raymond, McGee, and the state Republican Party, in part to force further disclosure about who was involved in the plan, party leaders said.

Jenna Russell can be reached at jrussell@globe.com.