Tobin verdict should discourage dirty tricks

CONCORD, N.H. – The guilty verdict in a Republican plot to jam Democratic phone lines on Election Day 2002 in New Hampshire should serve as a cautionary tale for political operatives, but the long-term implications are unclear, according to political scientists.

“What’s important is that it was a verdict that dirty tricks are not acceptable, even in politics, which most people think of as dirty,” said Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political scientist who has written about dirty tricks in politics.

Amy Fried, who teaches political science at the University of Maine, said the phone jamming would have been less scandalous in some parts of the country. “But I think in Maine it does count as a scandal,” she said, “because Mainers are used to very clean politics.”

James Tobin, 45, of Bangor, Maine, shook his head Thursday as he was convicted on telephone harassment charges. The jury acquitted him of the most serious charge, conspiring to violate voters’ rights, but he still faces up to seven years in prison.

For nearly two hours on Election Day 2002, hundreds of hang-up calls overwhelmed Democratic get-out-the-vote phone banks in New Hampshire. Federal prosecutors said the plot couldn’t have happened without Tobin’s knowledge. Tobin denied the charges.

The two political parties put their own spin on the outcome.

“This trial cast a stark light on the Republican culture of corruption that has infected our state,” read a statement from Kathy Sullivan, chairwoman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party.

Warren Henderson, chairman of the New Hampshire State Republican Committee, said he was happy to see an end to the case and was “satisfied that justice was done.”

“The New Hampshire Republican Party deplores and condemns this and every act of election abuse and voter fraud,” Henderson said.

Dante Scala, a political science professor at Saint Anselm College, said Democrats will have a tough time persuading voters Republicans running for office in 2006 are connected to the phone jamming that happened in 2002.

“I think the difficulty for the Democrats is in 2006, how are they going to connect the dots to any one political figure from the phone jamming,” he said.

Democratic Gov. John Lynch successfully used the corruption issue in his campaign last year to unseat Republican Gov. Craig Benson because he connected Benson to specific incidents, said Scala.

Unless there are further revelations, voters probably will see what happened as isolated.

“None of these guys were elected officials,” Scala pointed out.