New Hampshire Democrats Cry Foul

New Hampshire Democrats demanded last month that Election Day phone disruptions at several Democratic phone centers be investigated by the U.S. attorney general.

The Democrats claimed their phone centers were flooded by incoming calls last November, preventing volunteers from completing their efforts to get out the vote and harming the statewide ticket.

At deadline, the AG’s office had not responded to the probe request.

But the uproar over the alleged sabotage led to the resignation of Chuck McGee as executive director of the state Republican Party.

Shortly after McGee resigned, Jayne Millerick, the newly appointed New Hampshire Republican State Committee chairman, issued a code of ethics which was signed by the entire committee’s staff. The code was based on guidelines from the American Association of Political Consultants, Millerick said.

“The steps we are taking today send a strong message that unethical activity will not be tolerated on my watch. I have no idea whether there were any violations in any past party administrations, but I want to ensure there will be none during mine,” Millerick said in a statement accompanying the code.

Local news reports alleged that the disruption was conducted by Milo Enterprises, an Idaho telemarketing firm. The reports said that McGee hired GOP Marketplace, of Alexandria, VA, which in turn contracted with Milo to make voter-turnout calls for the New Hampshire GOP.

On Election Day, phone rooms operated by the Democrats and the Manchester firefighters’ union received several hang-up calls.

The calls tied up their lines for a few hours in the morning, until Verizon was able to straighten out the problem, said New Hampshire Democratic Party communications director Colin Van Ostern.

The firefighters’ union complained to the Manchester police department, which traced the calls back to Milo Enterprises, the firm hired by GOP Marketplace, Van Ostern said.

McGee denied having hired GOP Marketplace. But Millerick confirmed that the company had been hired to make voter turnout calls for the Republicans, although she denied that they were told to jam the Democrats’ phone banks, according to local news reports.

Several races in the areas affected by the disruptions resulted in close losses for the Democrats, according to Van Ostern.

“A county attorney’s race was decided by just over 100 votes, and several state senate races within the areas called were lost by a margin of less than 1,000 votes,” Van Ostern said.

“If there was a criminal conspiracy intended to affect the November elections, and it appears there was, then this is about more than just one person losing his job,” said Kathy Sullivan, the New Hampshire Democratic chairman, in a statement issued after McGee’s resignation.

Statewide races may have been affected as well. Polls taken during the last few days before the 2002 New Hampshire Senate election showed Democrat Jeanne Shaheen and Republican John Sununu trading close leads. Sununu won, 51%-46%, with third-party candidates making up the difference.