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Bush's New England Campaign Chief Resigns NewsMax.com WiresCONCORD, N.H. – President Bush's New England campaign chairman stepped down Friday after the Democrats accused him of taking part in the jamming of their telephone lines on Election Day 2002. "The Democrats' allegations against me are without merit," James Tobin said in the statement. "But to avoid any harm to the campaign from their underhanded tactics, I elected earlier this week to step down from my voluntary position with the campaign." Story Continues Below The resignation came as the Democrats and Republicans fought in court over whether the Democrats could question GOP officials about Tobin's alleged role in the illegal jamming. Get-out-the-vote phones run by Democrats and the nonpartisan Manchester firefighters union were jammed on Election Day two years ago by more than 800 computer-generated hang-up calls. The calls tied up the phones for about 1 1/2 hours. Last summer, Chuck McGee, former executive director of the state GOP, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and admitted paying $15,600 to a Virginia telemarketing company that hired another business to make the calls. GOP consultant Allen Raymond, former president of GOP Marketplace in Alexandria, Va., also pleaded guilty. At their plea hearings in federal court, McGee and Raymond acknowledged speaking to an unidentified official with a national political organization about the jamming. Democrats have said they believe that Tobin was the official and that he might have put McGee and Raymond together. In 2002, Tobin was Northeast political director for the Republican Senatorial Committee. Among the races affected by the phone-jamming was the Senate contest between Democrat Gov. Jeanne Shaheen and Republican Rep. John E. Sununu. The race had been considered a cliff-hanger, but Sununu wound up winning by about 20,000 votes. On Wednesday, state Democrats won court permission to take depositions from GOP officials about Tobin's alleged role, and that of any other top Republican officials, in the jamming. "It is disappointing, indeed, to see the opposition party manipulate the court system in a blatant effort to influence the election," Tobin said in his statement. The Justice Department, however, filed a request Friday for a delay until federal criminal proceedings end, saying the questioning would probably disclose matters now before a federal grand jury. The Democrats accused the Justice Department of colluding with the state GOP; the Republicans denied that. Tobin previously served as national political director for publisher Steve Forbes' presidential campaign.
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