CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – A former Republican party official is trying to avoid a second trial on charges stemming from a phone jamming plot against New Hampshire Democrats.

James Tobin, of Bangor, Maine, was convicted in 2005 of helping to arrange more than 800 hang-up calls that jammed get-out-the-vote phone lines set up by the state Democratic Party and the Manchester firefighters’ union for about an hour on Election Day 2002, the year of a tough U.S. Senate race between Republican John Sununu and former Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen.

This March, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston ruled that the harassment statute under which Tobin was convicted was not a close fit.

The case now turns on that question – whether Tobin’s intention was to harass – as his lawyers return to U.S. District Court in Concord today to seek an acquittal for him.

Tobin served as a regional official for the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, overseeing Senate campaigns in several states, including New Hampshire and Maine, when the phone jamming happened.

Tuesday’s hearing will surely trigger a sense of deja vu as the lawyers who went to trial two years ago meet again before chief Judge Steven McAuliffe to parse the fine points of the federal telephone harassment law. The political backdrop also will be familiar: Shaheen is challenging Sununu for his Senate seat in what promises to be another tough campaign.

If McAuliffe decides against acquittal, Tobin could face a new trial scheduled to begin Dec. 4.

Two other Republican operatives pleaded guilty and testified against Tobin during his first trial. Charles McGee, former executive director of the state Republican Party, served seven months in a federal prison. Allen Raymond, a Republican consultant, served three months.

A third man, Shaun Hansen, a former telemarketer, pleaded guilty last year to charges in the phone jamming but was allowed to withdraw his plea after Tobin’s conviction was overturned.