The head US Attorney for the District of NH is Thomas P. Colantuono, appointed to his post by George W. Bush in 2001. *
In the 2004 Presidential campaign, Colantuono’s wife made election-law news (Concord Monitor, October, 2004):
It’s illegal for clergy to campaign for a candidate on church property, but that didn’t stop a staffer for the Republican National Committee from soliciting help re-electing President Bush last week.
In an e-mail to “pastors, church leaders and ministries,”Pam Colantuono, wife of Tom Colantuono (a Bush-appointed U.S. attorney for New Hampshire), asked clergy for help getting a pro-Bush flier to parishioners. Colantuono was clear about how priests could do this without breaking the law.
“Please place these in your parking lot, or when you have a church activity have someone hand them out outside the church. This is very important,” the e-mail read. It continued in bold letters: “Pastors, do not display within the church and make sure you are not handing these out personally within your church. Assign someone to do this for you. We want to protect you.”
Colantuono also asked clergy to keep this effort “underneath the radar as we do not want any negative press.”
The flier was paid for by the New Hampshire Republican State Committee. In her e-mail, Colantuono said God had told her in her prayers that it would win the election for Bush.
The flier is pretty standard fare. It compares Bush and Democrat Sen. John Kerry on several “family values,” namely partial-birth abortion, pro-life judges and parental notification.
David Lamarre-Vincent, executive director for the New Hampshire Council of Churches, hadn’t seen Colantuono’s e-mail but was concerned when he heard its contents.
“This is troubling because often religious leaders don’t know where the line is,” Lamarre-Vincent said. “And out of no mal-intent, they might say or do something that crosses the line.”
Jayne Millerick, chairwoman of the state committee, defended the flier and Colantuono’s efforts to circulate it to church-goers.
“It’s something we are pretty proud of,” she said. “It really points out in a clear way where the candidates stand on issues that are important to folks of faith.”
The RNC paid Pam Colantuono a $4,000 for “Political consulting” in 2004. She also addressed the NH Right to Life group on behalf of Bush-Cheney ’04, but it’s not clear whether or not she worked with RNC executive James Tobin, who was New England chairman of Bush-Cheney ’04 during that time.
Anyway, if you have been wondering…
- why the US Attorney’s Office has moved so slowly in its investigation of the 2002 phone-jamming scandal…
- why the US Attorney never indicted or even revealed the name of phone-jammer James Tobin until NH Democrats forced the issue…
- why the US Attorney has actively interfered with the civil suit filed by NH Democrats …
- why RNC defense attorney* * Robert Kelner seems to have an inside line on what the US Attorneys are doing…
…one possible explanation could be that the chief US Attorney in NH may have personal and/or political ties to many of the people his team is supposed to be investigating.
* Interesting news story about the enthusiastic bidding of GOP Presidential hopefuls for support from NH politicians (January, 1999):
Conservatives, such as newly elected Executive Councilor Thomas P. Colantuono, were among those who got the most big-name support. He received checks from committees affiliated with Quayle, Sen. John Ashcroft (R-Mo.), publisher Steve Forbes, conservative activist Gary Bauer, former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander, and Sen. Robert C. Smith (R-N.H.), a potential favorite son.
The support paid off: Colantuono’s close win over an incumbent Democrat returned the five-person council to unanimous GOP control.
Colantuono said he had not solicited the money, but called it a “pleasant addition” to his campaign. He said it was too early, however, to decide whom he would support in 2000.
In fact, Colantuono endorsed George W. Bush.
* * One of the few individual donors to Tom Colantuono’s unsuccessful bid for a seat in the US Congress was Ovide P Lamontagne, an attorney with Devine, Millimet, and Branch who is defending the NH Republican Party against the phone-jamming civil suit filed by the NH Democrats.