Former GOP party head sentenced to seven months in phone jamming

[Caution]

Former GOP party head sentenced to seven months in phone jamming

By Erik Stetson, Associated Press Writer | March 10, 2005

CONCORD, N.H. -- The former executive director of the state Republican Party was sentenced Thursday to seven months in prison for jamming Democratic telephone lines during the 2002 general election.

Chuck McGee pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiring to make anonymous calls to annoy or harass. He also was fined $2,000 and ordered to perform 200 hours of community service. He faced up to 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

"I made a mistake," McGee said as he left court. "I'm prepared to pay for that mistake."

McGee resigned in 2003 after police alerted federal prosecutors to the phone-jamming operation. He denied any wrongdoing at the time. He later admitted paying $15,600 to a Virginia telemarketing company that hired another business to call get-out-the-vote phone banks around the state.

<snip>
http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2005/03/10/former_gop_party_head_sentenced_to_seven_months_in_phone_jamming/

Edit: Fixed Link

[Redstone]

1. Good. It should have been longer.

What the fucking Republicans did around here before the election was nothing less than phone harassment. Damn near gave me a heart attack from screaming at them to leave me alone.

Redstone

[Newsjock]

2. So, there you go

Illegally swing an election, and the price is seven months. Damn, what a country.

[VegasWolf]

3. Democracy is a beautiful thing! n/t

[Supersedeas]

22. A piece of cannon fodder for the Neo-Con election fraud machine.

Ya-know, one of them-thar bad apples...no reason to look any further.

[sasquatch]

4. Well he just popped his Cherry

I thought a "Goodfellas" referrence was most suitable here.

[Judi Lynn]

5. Hope he has to serve every second of it, too.

I agree, it should have been FAR longer, considering he was tampering with a federal election.

You can see his sweet little face at this site: http://billionairesforbush.com/cards2.php#a

He's damned lucky. Hope some of the other inmates tell him what they think of people working to throw Presidential elections.

[CottonBear]

9. I bet he'll be someone's girlfriend in prison.

[Old and In the Way]

10. Is that him?

He look's like a Karl Rove progeny. I hope Karl's not cloning himself. Why do Republican operatives all look butt ugly?

[Malikshah]

15. Looks like him

I did a google image search just now-- he was on a panel in NH for "Choose Your Future"-- (i.e. "Brown Shirt" brigade issue group in DC)

...everybody now! "Tomorrow belongs to me..."

[tsuki]

12. Martha served hers. We should watch.

[lateo]

6. Link is busted

[Atman]

7. You'd think the "liberal media" would be all over this!

Not.

[woosh]

8. My only regret

is that I got caught.

[dryan]

11. What is .....

phone jamming?

[woosh]

23. I was putting words into his mouth.

[Kolesar]

13. Let's each mail him a little jar of vaseline...eom

[Coventina]

14. A "mistake"? Give me a break

Yeah, I made a mistake on my mid-term exam. I got a 99 instead of 100. That's a mistake.
Not premeditated, deliberate disruption of the most sacred part of the democratic process. That's a CRIME.
:eyes:

Mistake!

I hope the guards at the prison make a "mistake" and put him in with someone looking for a Jenny.

[Auntie Bush]

17. Heee-Haaw

[Catfight]

16. I hope he experiences some 'jamming' in jail of his own. nt

[rasputin1952]

18. With each revelation of what the GOP does to shift elections to

thier side, I become more convinced that they cannot win w/o doing something out of line or downright illegal.

This type of behavior has always been around, but never so brazenly.

He shuld have gotten the max: 5 years, $250,000 fine; then banned from all political activity in the future. What he did was treasonous IMO.

:grr:

[Zan_of_Texas]

19. Agreed, the sentence and fine should have been more.

However, I take issue with the sentiments expressed here that he should be raped in prison.

Think about what you are saying, folks.

Maybe you think rape is funny.

No one should be raped. No one. Women. Men. Women in their homes or on the streets. Or, as victims of war. Men in prisons.

No one. Period.

I have a great sense of humor, but rape is not one of its elements.

[Zan_of_Texas]

21. Here is a previous article.

Telemarketer told which numbers to jam
July 2, 2004

By JOHN DiSTASO
Senior Political Reporter
The Union Leader New Hampshire
http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_showa.html?article=40146

CONCORD - A Republican State Committee employee told a telemarketer what telephone numbers to jam to stop Democratic and firefighters’ “get-out-the-vote” efforts on Election Day 2002, according to a federal prosecutor.
<SNIP>

Court documents say the vendor was paid $2,500 by GOP Marketplace “in exchange for providing the service of repeatedly calling without disclosing its identity . . .” Federal law says it is unlawful to conspire in “making harassing telephone calls in interstate communications without disclosing the caller’s identity and with the intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any person at the called number or who receives the communications.”

{Former Republican State Committee Executive Director Chuck} McGee resigned the day after The Union Leader first reported in February 2003 that Manchester police had alerted the U.S. Justice Department to the phone-jamming operation. Millerick said at the time the party had in fact hired GOP Marketplace. But she said it was hired for telemarketing services to encourage people to vote Republican, not to jam telephone lines.

She also said that despite McGee’s resignation, they maintained that neither he nor the state committee had anything to do with the operation. She said he resigned because the had become a distraction.

MORE

[XemaSab]

20. I wanna know who did the

same thing in NH during the primary last year. :mad:

[Moderator]

24. kick to combine

[NewHampshireDem]

25. (NH:) GOP phone jammer sentenced (to 7 months Prison)

http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_showa.html?article=51820

CONCORD — Even a leniency plea from a former foe could not keep the state Republican Party's former executive director out of jail for masterminding a scheme to jam opponents' get-out-the-vote phone banks on Election Day 2002.

U.S. District Court Judge Joseph DiClerico yesterday sentenced Charles "Chuck" McGee, 35, of Concord to seven months in a federal minimum security prison in Fort Devens, Mass., despite a request by state Democratic Chairman Kathleen Sullivan that McGee receive no jail time. The judge also fined McGee $2,000 and ordered him to perform 200 hours of community service.

"I made a mistake and will pay for my mistake," McGee, surrounded by family and friends, told The Union Leader after the hour-long hearing. "And I'm going to come back and elect good Republicans."

<snip>

He was "not the ultimate decision-maker," (NH Dem Chair Cathy Sullivan) wrote, charging that former state GOP chairman John Dowd and former National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Sen. Bill Frist were responsible for creating an environment "in which this type of behavior was tolerated and encouraged."
<more>

[Moderator]

26. kick to combine

[paineinthearse]

27. NH GOP exec director/phone jammer sentenced to 7 months in federal prison

For the NH & Massachusetts DU'ers who have been following this, SWEET JUSTICE!!!!!!

===================================

http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_showa.html?article=51820

GOP phone jammer sentenced
By JOHN DiSTASO
Senior Political Reporter


McGEE

CONCORD — Even a leniency plea from a former foe could not keep the state Republican Party's former executive director out of jail for masterminding a scheme to jam opponents' get-out-the-vote phone banks on Election Day 2002. U.S. District Court Judge Joseph DiClerico yesterday sentenced Charles "Chuck" McGee, 35, of Concord to seven months in a federal minimum security prison in Fort Devens, Mass., despite a request by state Democratic Chairman Kathleen Sullivan that McGee receive no jail time. The judge also fined McGee $2,000 and ordered him to perform 200 hours of community service.

"I made a mistake and will pay for my mistake," McGee, surrounded by family and friends, told The Union Leader after the hour-long hearing. "And I'm going to come back and elect good Republicans." During the hearing, however, McGee's lawyer, Patrick Donovan, had told the judge his client "is never going to work in politics again." At Donovan's request, Sullivan, a severe critic of McGee during the 2002 election cycle, wrote federal authorities last month asking that "Mr. McGee not be given jail time."

He was "not the ultimate decision-maker," she wrote, charging that former state GOP chairman John Dowd and former National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Sen. Bill Frist were responsible for creating an environment "in which this type of behavior was tolerated and encouraged."

McGee last July admitted developing and carrying out a scheme to block get-out-the-vote phone bank lines at five state Democratic offices and the non-partisan Manchester Professional Fire Fighters Association for 85 minutes on the morning of the 2002 election. He pleaded guilty to a felony charge of conspiring to violate a federal law that prohibits the use of phone lines to "annoy or harass" the person who receives a call.

MUCH more!!!!!!!!......


Former executive director of the state Republican Party Chuck McGee, left, and an unidentified woman arrive yesterday at U.S. District Court in Concord. (AP)

[CottonBear]

28. He looks like Scotty and KKKarl.

What do you want to bet that he makes some friends in prison?

[Tempest]

29. Josh Marshall: Frist's involvement in jamming to be revealed

www.talkingpointsmemo.com


He doesn't say much more than that. He promises more later.

[paineinthearse]

30. Just tried nominating for "greatest"

Already had 1 vote, mine would have put it there, but the post was 26 hours ago!

Appeal for special dispensation!!!!!

:mad: