James Tobin (political operative)

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For the Nobel Prize-winning economist, see James Tobin.

James Tobin was President George W. Bush's New England campaign chairman. He was convicted on December 15, 2005, of telephone harassment "for his part in a plot to jam the Democratic Party's phones on Election Day 2002." However, this conviction was later overturned by a federal appeals court.

As New England campaign chairman for Bush-Cheney '04 Inc., Tobin stepped down two weeks before the election when state Democrats accused him of involvement in a phone-jamming scheme on Election Day 2002. Tobin was later indicted for conspiracy.

Tobin served as national political director for publisher Steve Forbes' Presidential campaign. He is an employee of the Washington, D.C.-based DCI Group and also has his own consulting firm, Tobin & Co., based in Bangor, Maine. During the 2004 election cycle he was a Bush Ranger, raising at least $200,000 for the Bush 2004 reelection effort. [1]

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[edit] Phone jamming incident

In November 2002, Tobin was regional director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. On election day, computerized hang-up calls jammed phone lines set up by the New Hampshire Democratic Party and the Manchester firefighters' union. Over 800 phone calls were made to a get-out-the-vote phone bank over the course of two hours. This became known as the 2002 New Hampshire Senate election phone jamming scandal. The United States Senate contest in New Hampshire was between Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen and Republican Rep. John E. Sununu. Sununu won by about 20,000 votes.

Tobin and NSRCC political director Chris LaCivita had worked together at DCI Group, a Washington GOP lobbying and public relations firm, along with Brian McCabe, a GOP activist who formerly worked in several roles in New Hampshire, including as a campaign manager for former U.S. Rep. Bill Zeliff. At the time, the NSRCC was chaired by then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist.[2]

During the summer of 2004, Charles McGee, former executive director of the New Hampshire Republican Party, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and admitted paying $15,600 to an Alexandria, Virginia telemarketing company, GOP Marketplace, that hired another business to make the calls. A co-owner of that firm at the time, Shaun Hansen, was indicted in March. Republican consultant Allen Raymond, GOP Marketplace's former president, also pleaded guilty in the summer to a conspiracy charge in federal court.[3]

Tobin was convicted of putting McGee in touch with Raymond. [4] Tobin was acquitted by the federal jury on conspiring to violate voters' rights. He was sentenced on May 17, 2006 to 10 months in prison, two years probation, and $10,000 in fines. [5] [6]

Phone records show Tobin made two dozen calls to the White House within a three-day period around Election Day 2002. Ken Mehlman, then White House political director and now chairman of the Republican National Committee, has said none of the calls involved the phone-jamming incident but were part of a larger White House scheme with Jack Abramoff.

During Tobin's trial, questions arose about the source of the money involved in funding the phone jamming and his defense.

In July, the Union Leader reported [2] that one of Tobin's attorneys told the court he was representing the defendant in his capacity as an employee of the Republican National Committee (RNC). Since the RNC had stated that Tobin was acting on his own in a rogue operation, it was asked, why would they be paying for his defense?

In August, the RNC finally confirmed that it had spent more than $722,000 for Tobin's defense by the Washington firm of Williams & Connolly. "This support is based on his assurance and our belief that Jim has not engaged in any wrongdoing," a spokesperson told the Associated Press. [3] The Union Leader reported in February 2006 that the RNC had paid $1.7 million to Williams on the day Tobin was sentenced, for a total of $2.5 million, and would neither confirm nor deny that it was still paying his legal expenses. [4]. The RNC's first financial report of 2006 indicated that it by then spent another $330,000 [5]. Later that year, Tobin's wife was hired by the NRSC as a consultant on the unsuccessful re-election campaign of Rhode Island senator Lincoln Chafee, as Northeast Strategies, a company that listed the Tobins' home as its main address. Despite her lack of any previous experience, she was paid at $300,000.[6]

[edit] Conviction reversed on appeal

However, Tobin's conviction was recently overturned by a federal appeals court. The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston ruled that the statute under which Tobin was convicted "is not a close fit" for what Tobin did and questioned whether the government showed that Tobin intended to harass. It remanded the case for retrial, rather than acquit Tobin as his lawyers had asked, arging that a properly instructed jury could probably convict Tobin on his actions alone if intent to harass need not be proved. [7]

[edit] References

  1. ^ TPJ.org
  2. ^ http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_showa.html?article=48399
  3. ^ http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_showa.html?article=47785
  4. ^ [1][dead link]
  5. ^ http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/G/GOP_PHONE_JAMMING?SITE=JRC&SECTION=POLITICS&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-12-15-20-16-27
  6. ^ http://www.senatemajority.com/node/294
  7. ^ Court Overturns Phone Jamming Conviction

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