CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – Federal prosecutors reportedly intend to indict a fourth person in the jamming of Democratic get-out-the-vote telephone lines in 2002.

WMUR-TV reported Wednesday that an indictment is expected at the end of the month.

Former state Republican Executive Director Chuck McGee pleaded guilty to devising the idea of jamming the lines and served seven months in prison. Telemarketer Allen Raymond pleaded guilty to executing the plan and is to serve a three-month sentence.

James Tobin, who had served as New England chairman of President Bush’s re-election campaign, was convicted in December of telephone harassment charges for his role. Tobin, 45, of Bangor, Maine, faces up to five years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000. His sentencing has been delayed until May. Meantime he seeks a new trial.

Tobin was accused of referring McGee to Raymond to carry out the plan.

“Unfortunately for Republicans, we don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel yet, Democratic analyst Colin Van Ostern said. “This new indictment is one more sign that it wasn’t just one or two people who concocted this the night before the election. It was a number of people at fairly high levels in their party who commited crimes to win an election – and that is a pretty serious offense.”

State Republican Vice Chairman Wayne MacDonald said the scandal has been a drag on the party and its activists.

“They’re tired of hearing it, but everyone concerned will keep working,” MacDonald said. “We’ll get over this. The real issues right now are taxes, spending, good government.”

Raymond, president of Virginia-based GOP Marketplace LLC, told the jury he talked to Tobin a couple of weeks before the election about a plan to disrupt New Hampshire Democrats’ phone lines offering rides to the polls on Nov. 5, 2002.

Tobin, who did not testify during the trial, had worked in Maine and Washington for former Sen. William Cohen in the 1980s and worked on the election campaigns of Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe.

He stepped down as regional campaign chairman of President Bush’s re-election campaign in October 2004 when Democrats charged in a lawsuit that he took part in the phone-jamming scheme.

Republicans have filed a countersuit alleging that the Democratic Party had “an ulterior and improper purpose” for suing as part of a national strategy to use courts to gain political advantage in 2004.

The 2002 election featured a high-profile U.S. Senate race between Republican John Sununu and Democratic former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen. Sununu won by about 20,000 votes.

More than 800 hang-up phone calls that day jammed get-out-the-vote phone lines set up by Democrats and a firefighters union.

Copy the Story Link