CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – Is a former national Republican Party official the crucial link in an Election Day 2002 phone jamming plot against Democrats? Or is he a hardworking, churchgoing family man, unjustly implicated by others in the criminal plot?

Lawyers on Tuesday made their opening statements to jurors in the U.S. District Court trial of James Tobin, each painting differing portraits of President Bush’s former New England campaign chairman.

Chuck McGee, the state Republican Party’s former executive director, not only had Tobin’s blessing for the “evil scheme,” but he also had his help, U.S. Attorney Andrew Levchuk told the jury.

“He can’t find anybody … no one will touch this,” Levchuk said of McGee’s plot to disrupt get-out-the-vote phone banks operated by the state Democratic Party and a nonpartisan ride-to-the-polls line run by Manchester’s firefighters union. “Enter James Tobin.”

“This scheme does not happen without the active assistance of Mr. Tobin,” Levchuk added.

Dane Butswinkas, one of Tobin’s defense lawyers, focused on his client’s humble beginnings in Windham, Maine. “He was a mentor and he teaches Sunday school,” he said.

The son of a postal worker and a homemaker, Tobin, 45, is the first college graduate in his family.

“Send him home with his family,” Butswinkas said, with Tobin’s wife, parents and two teenage sons looking on. “Jim did not agree to join a criminal conspiracy or help to commit a crime.”

Tobin, of Bangor, Maine, resigned as New England chairman of President Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign in October 2004 when the phone jamming accusations became public. He also has been political director of the Republican National Committee, National Republican Senatorial Committee and Steve Forbes’ 2000 unsuccessful presidential bid.

A jury of eleven women and one man will decide whether Tobin is guilty of one count of conspiring against voters’ rights; one count of conspiring to commit telephone harassment; and two counts of aiding and abetting in telephone harassment. The maximum sentence for the first charge is 10 years, five years for the second and two years each for the other two counts. Each count carries a maximum $250,000 fine.

McGee, who admits coming up with the phone jamming plan, has completed a seven-month sentence for conspiracy. Another conspirator, Allen Raymond also has pleaded guilty for organizing the phone jamming, but wants a five-month sentence reduced further in exchange for cooperating with prosecutors.

Prosecutors claim McGee paid Raymond, former president of Alexandria, Va.- based GOP Marketplace LLC, $15,600 to arrange for hundreds of computer generated hang-up calls to jam get-out-the-vote phone banks in Claremont, Rochester and Manchester on Nov. 5, 2002.

Butswinkas on Tuesday warned jurors to be wary of Raymond’s motives when he testifies.

“That five months is hanging over his head like a piano,” he said.

Under questioning from prosecutors, McGee said he couldn’t find anyone willing to carry out the phone jamming until he asked Tobin for help about a week before Election Day.

“I gave him the essence of the plan or the idea, and asked him if he could help me,” McGee said. Tobin gave him Raymond’s phone number. “He just says give him a call,” McGee said.

McGee also testified former state Republican Party Chairman John Dowd knew about the plan in advance. McGee said Dowd was uncomfortable with the idea and consulted a lawyer. But when Dowd asked whether the phone jamming could be canceled at the last minute, McGee took that as Dowd’s approval.

“These people crossed the line between old-fashioned, hard-nosed politics and crime,” Levchuk said of McGee, Raymond and Tobin.

McGee’s testimony continues Wednesday.

AP-ES-12-06-05 1902EST