What Role Did Missouri Republicans Play In The New Hampshire Phone Jamming Case?

Avid politicos may have noted the conviction in New Hampshire last month of a top-level GOP political operative on charges of telephone harassment in a scheme senior GOP officials used to interfere with GOTV efforts in the 2002 Senate race in New Hampshire.

The RNC spent nearly 3/4 of a million dollars on legal fees to defend James Tobin, so you can bet they knew there was plenty to hide. He has now been convicted on two counts.

During the trial, certain documents came to light that raise questions regarding ties between Missouri Republicans, particularly Senator Jim Talent, and the New Hampshire Republican Party's phone jamming scheme.

The company hired to orchestrate the phone jamming was GOPmarketplace.com. That firm was run by Allen Raymond, who received a jail sentence in this case. Certain financial records from GOPmarketplace were introduced as evidence during trial. An Income by Customer Summary, shows receipts of $12, 904.28 from "Millennium." That is roughly the same amount GOPmarketplace received from the NH GOP to pay for the phone jamming there. Perhaps there was a Missouri version planned.

It's quite possible that the mention of Millennium is a reference to the Missouri based 527, the Missouri Millenium Fund, which was run by Senator Talent's Treasurer, Garrett Lott and was used to funnel money from Abramoff related tribal clients to various Missouri GOP causes, including Talent's campaigns.

Further supporting that theory is the $5,000 contribution from the New Hampshire Republican State Committee to Jim Talent's campaign committee on October 31, 2005. That was right in the midst of the planning at the New Hampshire GOP HQ for the phone jamming scheme. In 2002, the NH GOP contributed to no other U.S. Senate campaigns outside NH, other than to Talent's. Makes you curious doesn't it? Clearly, there were ties between the 2002 Talent campaign and the officals at the NH GOP responsible for the phone jamming scheme.