December 16, 2005

Bush Election Chairman off to Prison

I'm a little rusty with this whole blogging thing, but I figure this is just a good a story as any to dive back in. We all know that the GOP was up to some suspect antics in the 2000 and 2004 elections, and now we can conclusively add the 2002 elections to that list of interferences in domestic democracy by those who wish to spread it abroad.
The Boston Globe has the long version, but here's a quicker read:

"A former top Republican Party official was convicted on telephone harassment charges Thursday for his part in a plot to jam the Democrats' phones on Election Day 2002. The federal jury acquitted James Tobin of the most serious charge against him, of conspiring to violate voters' rights. Tobin, 45, of Bangor, Maine, was President Bush's New England campaign chairman last year. He could get up seven years in prison and $500,000 in fines when he is sentenced in March.
For nearly two hours on Election Day 2002, hundreds of hang-up calls overwhelmed Democratic get-out-the-vote phone banks in New Hampshire and a ride-to-the-polls line run by Manchester's firefighters union. Tobin, who at the time was New England chairman of Bush's re-election campaign and a top regional official of the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, was accused of orchestrating the phone-jamming.
The former executive director of the New Hampshire GOP, Chuck McGee, who admitted coming up with the idea, served a seven-month sentence for conspiracy."

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