CONCORD, N.H. – The former director of the New Hampshire Republican Party (search) pleaded guilty Wednesday to jamming Democratic phone banks on Election Day 2002.
Chuck McGee (search) was accused of arranging to have hundreds of hang-up calls made to phone lines that were installed to help voters get rides to the polls. Among the contests decided that day was the close Senate race in which Republican Rep. John Sununu (search) beat Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen (search).
McGee pleaded guilty to conspiring to make anonymous calls with the intent to annoy or harass. The offense carries up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He will be sentenced Oct. 29.
McGee admitted paying $15,600 to a Virginia telemarketing company that hired another business to call Democratic Party offices around the state. The computer-generated calls — more than 800 in all — lasted for about an hour and a half.
McGee resigned in 2003 after police alerted federal prosecutors to the phone-jamming operation. At the time, he denied any wrongdoing, and current GOP chairwoman Jayne Millerick said the money went to telemarketing services to encourage people to vote Republican, not to jam the lines.
Allen Raymond, the former president of GOP Marketplace in Alexandria, Va., pleaded guilty last month to hiring a firm from Idaho to make the calls.
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