CONCORD, N.H. – The state Republican Party says a lawsuit Democrats filed over a GOP phone-jamming plot was an attempt to generate bad publicity about Republicans and distract them from their work.

The state Democratic Party sued the Republican Party in July 2004 after two Republican officials were charged with participating in a scheme to block get-out-the-vote phone lines Democrats set up on Election Day 2002. Those two – former GOP chairman Chuck McGee and consultant Allen Raymond – have pleaded guilty, and a third official, James Tobin of Bangor, Maine, was convicted last month.

Democrats initially sued in an attempt to find out if any other Republicans may have been involved but have since amended their suit to add several defendants, including Tobin and the Republican National Committee.

Last month, Republicans filed a countersuit alleging that the Democratic Party had “an ulterior and improper purpose” for suing.

“Namely, the [New Hampshire Democratic Party] is seeking to impede [the GOP’s] protected First Amendment political activities by forcing it to divert its time and resources to defend itself in this lawsuit,” wrote GOP lawyer Ovide Lamontagne. “And [the Democratic Party] seeks to generate publicity casting [the Republicans] in a false light.”

Lamontagne argues the suit was part of a national strategy to use courts to gain political advantage in 2004.

But state Democratic Party Chairman Kathy Sullivan said Lamontagne is “making things up.”

“When you file a pleading, you are supposed to have facts underlying your claim. He has none here and with good reason. There are no facts.”

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. McGee, who came up with the plan, served seven months in prison. Raymond, former president of Virginia-based GOP Marketplace LLC, pleaded guilty to hiring a telemarketer to make the calls and has been sentenced to five months in prison.

Tobin, a former Republican National Committee regional director, is seeking a new trial on his conviction on telephone harassment charges. He was accused of referring McGee to Raymond to carry out the plan.