Just how stupid do Republicans think we are?
“Offensive and abhorrent.” That’s how NH GOP Chair Jayne Millerick described Chuck McGee’s behavior the day he pled guilty to a felony for the 2002 Election Day phone jamming. (Manchester Union Leader, July 29, 2004) No one on our side is trying to gloss over the fact that something terrible was done by Chuck McGee,” said Ovide Lamontagne, an attorney defending the NH GOP against the Democrats’ civil suit. (Manchester Union Leader, January 8, 2006)
And yet both remarks were made as the NH GOP continued to do business with Chuck McGee, many thousands of dollars of business each year. Because after the phone-jamming started making headlines, after Chuck McGee was allowed to resign from his job with the NH GOP “to avoid distraction,” he got a new paid position within a month, as NH Executive Director for a conservative think tank.
When that job ended, in March of 2004, McGee once again quickly found a new job and executive title:
Vice President for Political & Corporate Communications with Spectrum Printing, a direct mail firm specializing in GOP candidates.
If McGee’s phone-jamming was “offensive and abhorrent” to the NH GOP, it’s hard to understand how he’s had the same job for two years, a job that depends on his ability to attract business from…the NH GOP!
I blogged about McGee’s ongoing GOP ties back in December. Now John DiStaso of the Manchester Union Leader has news of an even stinkier smoking gun: McGee’s now sending out invitations to “GOP Campaign School.”
One thing Republicans can hope to learn: election shenanigans up to the level of felony don’t seem to get you in trouble with the NH GOP.
Here’s a rough timeline of Chuck McGee’s employment:
- Federal Election campaign, 2002
- Chuck McGee, Executive Director of the New Hampshire Republican party, gets a flyer in the mail from NH Democrats with phone numbers to call if you want a ride to the polls. McGee gets the idea to “disrupt enemy communications” by jamming these numbers. He approaches several telemarketers, all of whom refuse to help him, and is stymied until James Tobin puts him in touch with Allen Raymond, an unindicted co-conspirator in a recent telemarketing scandal.
- 11/4/2002
- McGee tells NH Republican State Chair John Dowd about his phone-jamming plan, puts Dowd’s signature onto the $15,600 check that pays for phone-jamming, and emails GOP Marketplace a list of 6 Get-Out-The-Vote telephone numbers to jam.
- 11/5/2002
- Early in the morning, NH RSC Chair John Dowd tells McGee to stop the phone-jamming. Even so, nonstop hangup phone calls from Idaho telemarketers disrupt the first hours of election day for NH Democrats and the Manchester Firefighters’ Union.
- January, 2003
- NH RSC Chair John Dowd pays Chuck McGee a $6,000 bonus.
- 2/6/2003
- More Republican approval for Chuck McGee’s role in 2002 Elections: New Hampshire Young Republicans Federation gives him its annual “Gipper” Award.
- 2/7/2003
- Phone-jamming scandal finally makes local news. Chuck McGee resigns as Executive Director of the New Hampshire Republican party. The new NH RSC chair Jayne Millerick describes McGee’s false statements to local newspapers as “mistaken,” adding that he’s done nothing wrong and is resigning “to minimize distractions.”
- March, 2003
- Chuck McGee already has a new job as NH Executive Director for conservative think-tank Citizens for a Sound Economy.
- December, 2003
- FBI agent first interviews Chuck McGee to ask him about his role in the phone-jamming. (Chuck McGee’s testimony)
- March, 2004
- The Bedford chapter of the Citizens for a Sound Economy (B-CSE), described as “a project of McGee’s“, is fined several thousand dollars for illegal sign-posting. “Chuck McGee, state director of the CSE and spokesman for the local chapter, said the matter would be pursued but the group had higher priorities at the moment.” The national CSE later tells reporters (Manchester Union Leader, July 15, 2004) that McGee’s paid job with them terminated in March, although their website still lists him as executive director in July, 2004.
- July 28, 2004
- Chuck McGee pleads guilty to a federal felony in the NH phone-jamming; NH GOP Chair Jayne Millerick says what he did was “offensive and abhorrent.” (Manchester Union Leader, July 29, 2004)
- August, 2004
- The Bedford chapter of the Citizens for a Sound Economy (B-CSE), after various “Wild West” activities got them in trouble is “disowned and stripped of its title by the national group.” (Manchester Union Leader, August 23, 2004) The group is also seeking a new director for NH.
- 05/25/2006
- Chuck McGee has been Executive Director of Spectrum Monthly for more than two years–presumably since soon after he lost his job with CSE. This job was kept open for him during the seven months Chuck McGee spent in federal prison last year.
Update: NH Republican State Committe chair Wayne Semprini tells reporters that they have “ absolutely nothing to do with” Chuck McGee’s GOP campaign school. Not that he plans to discourage NH Republicans from going to it, however…
That phrase sounded so familiar I looked it up–Wayne Semprini told reporters last week that Karl Rove’s $70,000 fundraiser had “absolutely nothing to do with” with their $80,000 legal bill for the phone-jamming civil suit.