Out of a Jam and Back Into the Jelly

By David A. Fahrenthold and Zachary A. Goldfarb
Sunday, May 28, 2006

A major figure in the Election Day phone-jamming scandal that embarrassed and nearly bankrupted the New Hampshire GOP is out of prison and back in the political game.

Charles McGee, the former executive director of the state Republican Party, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and served seven months for his part in the scheme to have a telemarketer to tie up Democratic and union phone lines in 2002.

He's back at his old job with a Republican political marketing firm, Spectrum Monthly & Printing Inc., and will be helping out at the firm's "GOP campaign school" for candidates.

Richard Pease, the firm's co-president, said that McGee would be available to advise candidates at the two-day event, planned for next weekend in Manchester, N.H. McGee's role at the school was reported Thursday by the New Hampshire Union Leader.

"Chuck will work with the candidates in any way they want," Pease said. "If they want his advice, if they want his . . . experience, it's there for them to take or leave."

Pease said he had no problem with McGee, who is a vice president in the firm, returning to advise politicians. "He made a mistake. He admitted to it. He served his time," Pease said.

"He's certainly not going to be standing there and advocating breaking the law," Pease said. He said McGee declined to comment about his role at the school.

In court, McGee acknowledged that the phone-jamming of get-out-the-vote drives by Democrats and organized labor was his idea, inspired by a lesson he learned in the Marine Corps: cut off your opponent's communications. The calls had the desired effect for two hours the morning of Election Day, but then the scheme began to unravel. Two other people have been sentenced to prison in the phone jamming.

The news of McGee's role in the campaign school was seized on by Democrats, who have charged that Republicans in New Hampshire and Washington have not done enough to repudiate the jamming scheme's authors. Christy Setzer, a spokeswoman for a Democratic group called the Senate Majority Project, said Spectrum's clients include many of New Hampshire's most prominent Republicans.

"The very fact that they continue to associate with him and give him their money . . . speaks volumes," she said.

In response, Andy Leach, the executive director of the New Hampshire Republican State Committee, said his group has nothing to do with the campaign school.

"We're not encouraging anyone to attend," said Leach, who said he was speaking on behalf of state GOP Chairman Wayne Semprini. The party will be running its own campaign school later in the year, he said.

June 6, D-Day for Democrats?

Late May is a great time to visit San Diego, especially if you are a political heavyweight who wants to see control of Congress remain with the GOP.

In the past two weeks, Vice President Cheney and House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) have dropped in on the 50th Congressional District, where a tight race is underway for the seat vacated by the imprisoned Randy "Duke" Cunningham. On Wednesday, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) will also enjoy some sea air as he headlines a fundraising breakfast.

The big-name GOP figures are in town on behalf of Brian P. Bilbray, who served in the House from 1995 to 2001 and who hopes to be returned in the June 6 election. Although the district is heavily Republican, voters watched their GOP representative plead guilty to taking $2.4 million in bribes six months ago, and Bilbray faces a fight against a former school board member, Democrat Francine Busby.

"If the Democrats can take this district, that means other Republican districts are at risk" in November, said John J. Pitney Jr., a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College. "This is an early check of the barometric pressure. If Busby wins, Republicans are going to see a storm coming."

Gov. Murkowski Faces GOP Primary

After intense speculation, Alaska Gov. Frank H. Murkowski (R) announced Friday he would seek a second term to continue work on a natural gas pipeline that could become the largest construction effort in the nation.

"There's an unfinished job to do," Murkowski, 73, said, according to the Associated Press. "We've got the momentum, and I want to see it through."

But Murkowski, a 22-year veteran of the U.S. Senate, will face a two-pronged primary challenge in August from Wasilla Mayor Sarah Palin and businessman John Binkley of Fairbanks. The winner of the GOP primary will face either Democratic state Rep. Ethan Berkowitz or Democratic state Rep. Eric Croft in a race the Cook Political Report calls a toss-up.

Murkowski has come under fire for budget cuts early in his term and for appointing his daughter, Lisa Murkowski, to his Senate seat.

"Building the gas line is certainly the No. 1 priority of my administration," Murkowski said Friday, according to the AP.

No Commencement for Electoral College

In February, election reform advocates and several former members of Congress, including 1980 presidential candidate John B. Anderson of Illinois, made a splash with a proposal to ensure that the Electoral College selects the candidate who wins the popular vote for president. Under the proposal, states holding a majority of the Electoral College votes (270 of 538) would agree to award their votes to the candidate who wins the nationwide popular vote, regardless of how the candidate fared in those states.

The New Yorker magazine wrote about the plan, and the New York Times editorial board endorsed it.

Now the idea seems to have fizzled.

While bills have been introduced in six states to adopt the practice -- including Colorado, Missouri, Louisiana, California, Illinois and, last week, New York -- no legislature has passed the bill and the legislative sessions are coming to a close, said Rob Richie, executive director of Fair Vote, a group promoting the idea.

But he is not disturbed. "It's really been encouraging," he said. "We were never sanguine about zipping through."

Staff writer Sonya Geis contributed to this report.