New inquiry on N.H. phone-jam
US House panel is investigating '02 election plot
WASHINGTON - A House panel is probing the Election Day 2002 phone-jamming by GOP operatives against New Hampshire Democrats.
Representative Paul Hodes, Democrat of New Hampshire, wants the panel to focus on whether the White House played a role in the plot and whether the Justice Department dragged its feet on investigating.
"We need to know whether others were involved in the election interference, whether they attempted to cover up the involvement of other political operatives, and whether there was a concerted effort to delay prosecution," Hodes said in prepared testimony yesterday to a joint panel of two Judiciary Committee subcommittees.
Hodes said the public deserves to know whether political interference delayed prosecution of the case until after the 2004 elections and President Bush's reelection. The controversy over the alleged political firings of nine federal prosecutors underscores the need to hold the Justice Department accountable, he said.
"Political fraud cannot be allowed to compromise the electoral process," Hodes said.
The phone-jamming scandal has led to at least three criminal prosecutions and a lawsuit that was settled with Republicans paying Democrats $135,000.
Allen Raymond, a Republican consultant who served three months in prison for his role organizing the jamming, will also testify. He wrote a book titled "How to Rig an Election."
More than 800 hang-up calls jammed get-out-the-vote phone lines set up by the state Democratic Party and the Manchester firefighters' union for more than an hour on Election Day, when Republican John Sununu won a hotly contested Senate race against Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat who was governor at the time. Since Sununu won by nearly 20,000 votes, the more than 800 jammed phone calls probably had little impact on the outcome of the race.
Charles McGee, former executive director of the New Hampshire Republican Party, pleaded guilty and served seven months in prison for his role in the scheme.
James Tobin of Maine, former regional director of the Republican National Committee, was convicted by a jury in 2005 of helping arrange the phone-jam. He was acquitted this year on appeal. Federal prosecutors are appealing the acquittal.
At the time of the jamming, Tobin was also regional political director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, overseeing Senate campaigns in several states. In 2004, he stepped down as New England chairman of Bush's reelection campaign when Democrats accused him of playing a role in the jamming.
Phone records from Tobin's trial show he made two dozen calls to the White House political office right around Election Day 2002, as the phone-jamming operation was finalized, carried out, and abruptly shut down.
The White House political office, recipient of most of the calls, was run in 2002 by Ken Mehlman. He has denied allegations that any of the calls were related to the jamming, contending the discussions focused only on the close election won by Sununu.
