Last year, Tobin served as President Bush's 2004 New England campaign
chairman, but he resigned that October after the phone-jamming
accusations surfaced.
From The Associated Press, 11/30/05:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/11/30/national/a123552S65.DTL
N.H. GOP Tries to Block Phone Subpoena
By BEVERLEY WANG, Associated Press Writer
Concord, N.H. (AP) --
New Hampshire's Republican Party is fighting a subpoena from federal
prosecutors for documents from the party's own investigation of a plot
to jam Democratic phone lines on Election Day 2002.
Prosecutors want the materials for their case against James Tobin, a
former national Republican campaign official who is scheduled to go on
trial next Tuesday.
The subpoena demands papers and computer hard drives examined by
lawyers the Republican Party hired to conduct a 2003 investigation of
the jamming allegations.
Republicans say turning over the documents would violate
attorney-client privilege.
According to papers filed Monday in federal court, they are also leery
of giving up computer files containing campaign strategy and other
confidential political information.
The computer files "contained no information that appeared to be
related to the phone-jamming allegations," according to an affidavit
by lawyer Ovide Lamontagne, who oversaw the 2003 investigation.
"The computer documents, however, do reflect (New Hampshire State
Republican Committee) confidential and proprietary information,
including election strategies, campaign analysis, organizational
charts, and membership information."
In 2002, Tobin was political director of the national committee
working to get Republicans elected to the Senate.
He is accused of orchestrating the phone jamming plot, in which
hundreds of computer-generated calls paralyzed Democratic
get-out-the-vote and ride-to-the-polls phone lines in New Hampshire
for more than an hour on Nov. 5, 2002.
That year, in a closely watched Senate race, Republican John Sununu
defeated Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, 51 percent to 46 percent.
Tobin has pleaded not guilty to one charge of conspiring against
rights, one count of conspiring to commit telephone harassment and two
counts of aiding and abetting in telephone harassment.
Last year, Tobin served as President Bush's 2004 New England campaign
chairman, but he resigned that October after the phone-jamming
accusations surfaced.
Chuck McGee, former state party chairman, and Allen Raymond, former
owner of GOP Marketplace, based in Alexandria, Va., have pleaded
guilty.
Both were fined and sentenced to months-long prison terms, and both
have cooperated with investigators.
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Yup. Another Republican scandal.
Harry
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