MANCHESTER, N.H. – Former White House political director Ken Mehlman said Tuesday that neither he nor anyone on his staff spoke with Republicans in New England about a scheme to jam the New Hampshire Democrats’ get-out-the-vote phone lines on Election Day 2002.

Mehlman’s statement came after state Democrats argued in court they were entitled to find out whether anyone in the White House or at the Republican National Committee knew about the phone-jamming.

Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean also sent a letter to Mehlman earlier in the day, asking him whether the White House or the national GOP authorized the scheme.

Mehlman, now chairman of the Republican National Committee, acknowledged that James Tobin and other local GOP officials had called Alicia Davis, the White House political operative responsible for the Northeast, in the days surrounding the election. But he said that was because “one of the most competitive” Senate races that year was in New Hampshire.

Tobin, of Bangor, Maine, is among three people convicted on criminal charges in the phone-jamming. He has appealed.