BANGOR – Federal prosecutors will ask an appellate panel to reconsider its decision to reverse the conviction and sentence of a longtime Republican strategist linked to a phone jamming plot in New Hampshire on Election Day 2002.

James Tobin, 46, of Bangor was found guilty in December 2005 of conspiring to jam the phones at a get-out-the-vote operation set up by the state Democratic Party and the Manchester firefighters’ union. More than 800 repeated hang-up calls were made for about an hour to the phone bank on Election Day disrupting the Democrats’ efforts.

Tobin was acquitted of the more serious charge of conspiring to deprive New Hampshire residents of their right to vote after a six-day jury trial in federal court in Concord, N.H.

A three-judge panel of the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Boston, in March overturned the verdict and 10-month sentence. They ruled that the harassment statute under which Tobin was convicted “is not a close fit” for what Tobin did – it found that the trial judge’s interpretation of the law was too broad – and questioned whether the government showed that Tobin had an intent or purpose to harass.

The government’s motion to reconsider had not been made public by 6 p.m. Thursday but was expected to be filed by midnight, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. said Thursday afternoon.

She did not say on what basis the rehearing would be sought.

Last month, the appellate court set May 17 as the date by which prosecutors had to decide what their next legal move would be: seek a rehearing, ask for a review of the decision by all the 1st Circuit judges, appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, or allow the case to be sent back to U.S. District Court in New Hampshire.

If the motion for a rehearing is denied, prosecutors could pursue any of the other options.

Tobin’s Washington, D.C., attorneys have a companywide policy of not speaking with the press.

A new trial is unlikely given the 1st Circuit’s ruling and the difficulty in proving Tobin’s intent.

At the time of the phone jamming, Tobin was a regional official with the Republican National Committee and the National Senatorial Committee, overseeing Senate campaigns in seven states, including New Hampshire and Maine. He went on to serve as President Bush’s New England re-election chairman in 2004, but resigned after the phone-jamming allegations surfaced.