GOP figure sentenced in jamming case

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CONCORD, N.H. – A former Republican consultant was sentenced Tuesday to five months in jail for jamming Democratic telephone lines in several New Hampshire cities during the 2002 general election.

Allen Raymond, who was president of the Alexandria, Va.-based GOP Marketplace LLC at the time, did not comment as he left the U.S. District Court sentencing. He had pleaded guilty in June.

Judge Joseph DiClerico also imposed a fine of $15,600, the amount Raymond’s company was paid by New Hampshire Republicans for telemarketing services in 2002.

Raymond, 37, apologized before being sentenced.

“Your Honor, I did a bad thing,” he said. “While what I did was outside my character, I take full responsibility for my actions.”

John Durkin, Raymond’s lawyer, portrayed his client as an upstanding citizen who had been taken advantage of by James Tobin, 44, of Bangor, Maine, then the northeast political director of the national party committee working to elect Republican senators.

“This was not Allen Raymond’s idea,” Durkin said. “Tobin called on Raymond to do this.”

The assertion prompted stern questioning from DiClerico.

“What about common sense? What about a personal moral compass?” the judge said.

Durkin said Raymond had suffered greatly already.

“Whatever the court does today, 99 percent of the damage has already been done,” he said.

Federal prosecutor Todd Hinnen said Raymond has been cooperating in the continuing investigation of the case.

Chuck McGee, former executive director of the New Hampshire Republican Party, also has pleaded guilty to charges in the case. He is scheduled to be sentenced next month.

Tobin was indicted in December in federal court in New Hampshire for his alleged role in the scheme. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and his trial is scheduled to begin in June.

Tobin, through his Bangor attorney, Timothy Woodcock, denied the charges in December.

“I am saddened to learn that this action has been taken against me,” he said. “I have great respect for the justice system and plan to fight back to clear my name. The facts and time will demonstrate that these charges are without merit, and I am confident I will prevail.”

Tobin, a Windham native, worked in Maine and Washington for former U.S. Sen. William Cohen in the 1980s. He also worked on the election campaigns of U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe.

In 1996, he ran the national presidential campaign of millionaire businessman Steve Forbes.

Last year, he founded a communications and political consulting company in Bangor. He stepped down as Bush’s regional campaign chairman on Oct. 15, when New Hampshire Democrats said in a separate civil lawsuit they believed he took part in the phone-jamming scheme.

According to prosecutors, Raymond, McGee and Tobin plotted to jam Democratic lines that voters could call for rides to the polls in Manchester, Nashua, Rochester and Claremont. A line run by the nonpartisan Manchester firefighters’ union also was jammed.

The more than 800 computer-generated calls lasted about 90 minutes on Nov. 5, 2002, as voters decided races for governor, U.S. senator and hundreds of other offices.

State Republicans acknowledged two years ago they hired GOP Marketplace for telemarketing services in the election. But then-Republican Chairwoman Jayne Millerick said the company was paid to encourage people to vote Republican, not to jam lines.

State Democratic Chairwoman Kathy Sullivan spoke at Raymond’s sentencing, calling the jamming outrageous.

“What happened here was a decision made to interfere with the political process,” she said.

State Republican Chairman Warren Henderson was equally harsh in his criticism of Raymond.

“Mr. Raymond’s role in the ‘phone jamming’ during the 2002 election was intolerable and offensive to all citizens of New Hampshire, and deserving of serious punishment,” he said in a written statement. “As a former state legislator and former member of the New Hampshire Ballot Law Commission, I am personally offended at this illegal and unethical assault on the integrity of our democratic process.”

Henderson said the state GOP would continue to work with federal investigators.

Bangor Daily News reporter Judy Harrison contributed to this report.