Recently, the state Republican Party agreed to pay $125,000 over the next five years to the state Democratic Party under a settlement regarding the 2002 phone-jamming accusations by the Democrats.
The settlement, coming several days after Hillsborough County Superior Court Judge Philip Mangones prevented both parties from receiving the deals they wanted, prevented the expected trial from taking place on Monday.
Charles McGee, the former Republican State Republican Committee Executive Director, admitted to hiring a telemarketing firm to place hundreds of hang-up calls on Election Day in 2002. This was done to disrupt Democratic Party phone banks and a firefighter’s phone bank in Manchester that was offering rides to the polls. McGee and Republican consultant Allen Raymond served time in federal prison after pleading guilty to telephone harassment charges.
McGee paid $15,000 to Raymond so he would find someone to make the calls. Shaun Hansen, owner of the Idaho-based firm hired, pleaded guilty to phone harassment charges and is scheduled to be sentenced in February.
John Dowd, the GOP party chair during the election, said that he had, “within hours of hearing about it, order[ed] it stopped before it started. [Dowd] learned later that, contrary to [his] instructions, the plan did go forward for about 90 minutes on Election Day morning.”
In addition to the money, both the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee are to pay $5,000 to the Manchester Professional Firefighters and a charity associated with the Manchester Police. However, the Republicans do not have to admit liability, nor do they have to apologize.
State Democratic chair Kathy Sullivan had demanded the liability claims and an apology, but said she was pleased with the results. According to the online edition of The Manchester Union Leader, Sullivan felt that, “…the phone-jamming…was reprehensible and resulted in a loss of public confidence in the local and national Republican Party organizations…the Republican Party paid dearly for their actions through their recent historic electoral loss and the severe depletion of their financial resources.”
Wayne Semprini, the Republican Party Chair for New Hampshire, said that, “For too long, this case has distracted members of our party and the public at large from the real issues that affect real people in New Hampshire…my only regret…is that the public-at-large will never know the whole and real story and that is the phone jamming scheme was the act of a few unauthorized individuals and not that of the Republican Party.”
According to Sullivan, the federal criminal investigation is ongoing. Both she and Semprini also said that they wished for the parties to move on in the best interests of the state.