Bush's New England Campaign Chief Resigns Over Phone-Jamming Charges

Erik Stetson, AP

CONCORD, N.H. - pResident Bush's New England campaign chairman stepped down Friday after the Democrats accused him of taking part in the jamming of their telephone lines on Election Day 2002.

[...] Get-out-the-vote phones run by Democrats and the nonpartisan Manchester firefighters union were jammed on Election Day two years ago by more than 800 computer-generated hang-up calls. The calls tied up the phones for about 1 1/2 hours.

Last summer, Chuck McGee, former executive director of the state GOP, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and admitted paying $15,600 to a Virginia telemarketing company that hired another business to make the calls. GOP consultant Allen Raymond, former president of GOP Marketplace in Alexandria, Va., also pleaded guilty.

At their plea hearings in federal court, McGee and Raymond acknowledged speaking to an unidentified official with a national political organization about the jamming. Democrats have said they believe that Tobin was the official and that he might have put McGee and Raymond together.

In 2002, Tobin was Northeast political director for the Republican Senatorial Committee.

Among the races affected by the phone-jamming was the Senate contest between Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen and Republican Rep. John E. Sununu. The race had been considered a cliff-hanger, but Sununu wound up winning by about 20,000 votes.

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