Ex-GOP official acquitted of jamming Democratic phones

A federal judge Thursday acquitted a former Republican Party official accused of taking part in a plot to jam state Democratic Party phone lines on election day 2002.

James Tobin, the former regional chairman of President Bush’s reelection campaign, was convicted in federal court in 2005 of helping to arrange more than 800 hang-up calls that jammed get-out-the-vote phone lines set up by the state Democratic Party and the Manchester firefighters’ union for about an hour.

Republican John E. Sununu defeated then-Gov. Jeanne Shaheen for the Senate that day.

But the U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the conviction last year, sending it back to U.S. District Judge Steven McAuliffe, who scheduled a new trial for Tobin that was to have started this week. The appeals court ruled that Tobin’s actions did not fit the specific law he was convicted of violating.

On Thursday, McAuliffe agreed, saying he was “constrained” by the appeals court ruling and his reading of the law.

It wasn’t clear whether prosecutors would appeal.