Posted on 02/11/2003 8:40:03 AM PST by End Times Sentinel
Manchester police have alerted the U.S. Justice Department to an Election Day operation allegedly ordered by a Republican telemarketing dealer that jammed get-out-the-vote phone banks operated by the city’s firefighters union and the state Democratic Party.
Lt. Fred Roach of the city’s detective bureau said this week Idaho-based telemarketing firm Milo Enterprises was hired by GOP Marketplace of Alexandria, Va., to make repeated hang-up calls to a group of New Hampshire phone banks on Nov. 5.
Union and Democratic officials said the phone jam, broken by Verizon after two hours, lasted long enough to hurt their efforts to reach people who needed rides to the polls. Union president William Clayton said many intended contacts with potential riders, especially seniors, were not made, and, “I know a lot of them got shut out” of voting.
Roach said a state harassment law may have been violated. The case’s multi-state nature prompted him to contact authorities about possible federal violations, he said.
State Republican Chairman Jayne Millerick said yesterday the state committee hired GOP Marketplace, but not to jam opposition phone lines, something she said she knew nothing about.
Millerick, elected chairman two weeks ago, said party executive director Chuck McGee told her that, “at the very end of the election cycle, the state party contracted with GOP Marketplace with the thought that the party may use telemarketing to do more get-out-the-vote calling. But the calls were never made, and the state party is currently working on getting a refund.”
She noted the hiring occurred “before my time” as party chairman. Millerick worked with the state GOP in the fall to direct the Republicans’ own get-out-the-vote effort in the final hours of the campaign.
GOP Marketplace calls itself “the first Internet-based political B2B (business-to-business). We link campaigns and committees with telephone vendors online.”
The Republican State Committee paid GOP Marketplace $15,600 on Nov. 1. A lawyer for GOP Marketplace would neither confirm nor deny the firm hired Milo Enterprises.
State Democratic Chairman Kathleen Sullivan said, “It breaks my heart that anyone in this country would engage in criminal activity to try to prevent seniors from voting and to interfere with a free election.”
City firefighters head Clayton said union volunteers noticed they could not make or receive calls at about 7:30 a.m. on Election Day. After an hour, he said, the problem was reported to police.
Lt. Roach said Verizon was contacted, freed the phone lines and identified the caller as Milo Enterprises.
He said Milo officials, contacted last month, “were very cooperative. They said they were a telemarketing firm for hire and had been paid in advance (by GOP Marketplace, Roach said,) to repeatedly call a variety of phone numbers in New Hampshire on November 5.”
Roach said Milo officials told him that when they arrived at work early on Nov. 5, their workers had been making the calls for about an hour. But after checking the work order, Roach said, they stopped the blocking operation, realizing it could be “a problem.”
Roach said he later spoke to a vice president at GOP Marketplace, and, “He was very evasive.” The Union Leader’s call to GOP Marketplace President Allen Raymond was returned by company attorney John Partridge, who said Raymond “can’t confirm or deny” that Milo Enterprises was hired.
Clayton said the firefighters don’t ask riders their party affiliation. He noted many union members are Republicans and the state firefighters union backed Republican Craig Benson for governor.
Sullivan said she identified the party numbers blocked as those for the Democratic City Committee office, the state party’s now-closed coordinated campaign office and state party field offices in Nashua, Rochester and Claremont.
Roach noted a state law making it a misdemeanor to make a telephone call “with a purpose to annoy or alarm another.” Prosecuting an out-of-state entity on a misdemeanor is difficult, he said, but he said he has contacted the U.S. Justice Department in Washington.
One federal law prohibits causing “the telephone of another repeatedly or continuously to ring, with the intent to harass any person at the called number.” Roach said, “It appears (the Justice Department) may be interested in pursuing the matter.”
McGee, the Republican State Committee executive director, said early yesterday he had vaguely heard of GOP Marketplace and did not hire the firm. Later, Millerick called The Union Leader to say that McGee “was mistaken,” and had in fact hired it for telemarketing.
Sullivan said, “I find it fascinating that Chuck McGee’s initial reaction was to lie. I don’t know if I can believe anything now.”
Roach said blocking phone lines “is serious crime, regardless of whether it’s a misdemeanor or a felony. Whether it be you, me, or a union hall, they’re all victims.”
Raymond is a 33-year-old organizer whose recent clients included Republican National Committee co-chair Patricia Harrison and former Presidential candidate Steve Forbes’ 2000 campaign committee, according to the firm’s Web site. Last year, he headed the Republican Leadership Conference, which spent about $150,000 advertising against conservative GOP former candidate for governor Gordon Humphrey.
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