Back in August I wrote about Republicans and Election Tampering. James Tobin, Bush's 2004 New England Campaign Chairman was indicted for tampering in the 2002 New Hampshire election. Well today he was found guilty: "A senior official in U.S. President George W. Bush's re-election campaign was sentenced to 10 months in prison on Wednesday for his role in suppressing votes in a key U.S. Senate race.". The article also says "Tobin was denied bail and also fined $10,000 and given two years of probation." so I don't know how to reconcile that.
So why is this a big deal? Tobin was high up in the national Republican party. This brings up the question of who else knew about this and was it done in other places? Why do these questions persist? Because the national Republican Party paid $2.5 million for Tobin's legal fees. Why defend an election tamperer when the case against him was so strong? Perhaps because he could implicate others? It seems that Tobin and other NH Republican officials made 22 calls to the White House between Nov 5-6 (election day was the 5th). Some like Kathleen Sullivan, the New Hampshire Democratic Party chair, suggest he might have reported to others on the scheme. The national Republican party (is this the same as the RNC?) says they were just routine calls. Anyway it stinks.
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