Phone jammer gets prison term

CONCORD, N.H. — A former Republican National Committee official was sentenced Wednesday to 10 months in prison for his role in hiring a Sandpoint, Idaho firm to jam New Hampshire Democrats’ telephones on Election Day 2002.

James Tobin, the third person sent to prison in the case, was found guilty in December of harassment by telephone. Prosecutors had asked for two years behind bars.

Prosecutors said Tobin helped arrange more than 800 hang-up calls that jammed get-out-the-vote phone lines set up by the state Democratic Party and the Manchester firefighters’ union for about an hour. Republican John Sununu defeated then-Gov. Jeanne Shaheen for the Senate that day in what had been considered a cliffhanger.

Tobin, 45, of Bangor, Maine, apologized, saying he wished he had not gotten involved in the jamming or had acted to stop it.

“I have tried to live my life honestly and with integrity,” he told U.S. District Judge Steven McAuliffe.

At the time of the phone jamming, Tobin was a regional official with the RNC and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, overseeing Senate campaigns in several states, including New Hampshire and Maine.

Tobin later became New England chairman of President Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign but stepped down when Democrats accused him of playing a role in the jamming.

The former executive director of the New Hampshire GOP, Chuck McGee, previously admitted coming up with the idea. He served seven months for conspiracy.

Allen Raymond, former president of a Republican consulting firm in Virginia, pleaded guilty to arranging for Mylo Enterprises, a Sandpoint, Idaho, based telemarketing business, to make the hang-up calls. He received a three-month prison sentence.

Shaun Hansen of Spokane, co-owner of the now-defunct Mylo Enterprises, was charged in March with conspiring to commit, and aiding and abetting the commission of, interstate phone harassment.

Those charges carry a maximum sentence of seven years in prison. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Phone records show Tobin made two dozen calls to the White House in a three-day period around Election Day 2002. Ken Mehlman, then White House political director and now chairman of the RNC, has said none of the calls involved the phone-jamming.

Tobin was also fined $10,000 fine and given two years of probation.