Phonegate was a scandal during the 2002 Senate election in New Hampshire, where the Republican party hired a company to disrupt the Democratic Party’s phone banks. The scandal involved several individuals, including State GOP executive director Charles McGee and James Tobin, who had connections to the Bush-Cheney campaign. The case tied into other scandals, including the scandal surrounding Jack Abramoff. Although prosecutions have slowed down since 2006, calls have been made to give the investigation more attention.
Phonegate was a scandal for the Republican party that occurred in 2002. It revolved around a Senate election in New Hampshire, where dirty tricks were used to disallow the Democratic candidate. The term Phonegate is a reference to any number of other government scandals that use the suffix –gate in reference to the Watergate scandal.
In 2002, Republican Senator from New Hampshire, Robert C. Smith, was not re-nominated by his party following what many perceived as a party churn during the 2000 presidential election cycle. Republican Representative John E. Sununu was nominated.
During this election, Sununu’s Democratic challenger was former New Hampshire Governor Jeanne Shaheen. She was well liked by many people in New Hampshire, and part of the reason Smith was kicked out in favor of Sununu was because she voted against Smith. Even with Sununu as the Republican candidate, the race still looked very close.
Leading up to the election, the Democratic Party in New Hampshire, as well as the firefighters union, has been preparing a major phone banking operation to help get the rides of likely Democratic voters to get to the polls. Democrats working at phone banks reported receiving incoming calls at incredibly loud volume, which would cease after about five seconds. This made telephone banks nearly impossible to function properly, preventing them from organizing rides for voters. The unraveling scandal revolving around this act would be referred to as Phonegate.
The Democratic Party reported the incident to the police, who eventually discovered the calls were from a foreign country. This allowed them to bring in a federal agency, which continued the investigation. Eventually the calls were traced to an Idaho-based phone banking company, Mylo Enterprises. It soon turned out that the New Hampshire GOP had hired someone to actively disrupt the Democratic Party’s phone banks, a clear case of election tampering.
State GOP executive director Charles McGee eventually resigned over the matter, as well as lying to reporters when asked what happened. The story turned out that McGee had decided, perhaps because of his military background, that his best strategy would be to cut off “enemy communications” in the run-up to the election. After failing to find a company that would do what he wanted, he was eventually put in touch with GOP Marketplace by James Tobin, the field director for the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee.
The company was run by Allen Raymond, of New Jersey, who had connections to other questionable phone scandals revolving around past campaigns. Raymond eventually pleaded guilty to a series of Phonegate-related charges in mid-2004, and McGee followed soon after. A third man was mentioned during the hearing, who is said to have had close ties to the Bush-Cheney campaign.
The third man involved in Phonegate turned out to be James Tobin, who resigned and was indicted later that year. Convictions followed, and the case continued to receive national attention, eventually tying into other scandals, including the scandal surrounding Jack Abramoff. Connections between Tobin and the White House also emerged, which the Democratic Party continued to investigate, though no further charges were brought.
Although prosecutions at Phonegate have slowed down since 2006, calls have been made to give the investigation more attention. In mid-2006 a Michigan Democrat, John Conyers, asked the Attorney General to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Phonegate more thoroughly.
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