Talk:James Tobin (political operative)

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[edit] Important Mistakes in this page?

Admittedly, I'm fuzzy about these specifics myself, but I believe the sourced quote below is at least ambiguous and perhaps in error:

"Tobin reported to NRSCC executive director Mitch Bainwol and political director Chris LaCivita. U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist chaired the NRSCC at the time."

Two points:

• According to the indictment Tobin worked as the "New England Regional Political Director of the Republican National Committee" -- the RNC -- as opposed to the NRSCC.

• Although occasionally referred to as the "National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee" I think its actual name is the "National Republican Senatorial Committee" (w/o the word "campaign"), and the proper acronym is NRSC. The National Republican Senatorial Committee was formed ~100 years ago as the "Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee" but later renamed the "National Republican Senatorial Committee," which I suspect explains the confusion. I've been unable to find a committee that uses NRSCC, and furthermore, Bill Frist was in fact chair of the NRSC from '02-'04.

If what I've proposed is correct, this also calls Chris LaCivita's role into question. Again, according to the indictment, Chuck McGee of the NH GOP contacted Tobin of the RNC seeking a vendor to do the phone jamming, and Tobin put McGee togther with Raymond Allen of GOP Marketplace. So what's unclear to me is why, as reported and correctly sourced, Tobin would have "reported" to LaCivita.

I didn't make any edits to the Tobin page because of my uncertainty. Does anyone understand this more clearly than I, and if not, is anyone willing to help me sort it out? I'm doing a couple of stories for ePluribus Media that are related to the key players in the NH scandal. Todd Johnston 00:36, 3 December 2006 (UTC)