Fourth man charged in GOP phone-jamming scam

Telemarketer charged in phone jam
Pleads not guilty in GOPelection scheme

By HOLLY RAMER
The Associated Press

March 28. 2006 8:00AM

The former co-owner of a telemarketing firm pleaded not guilty yesterday to participating in a Republican scheme to jam Democrats' get-out-the-vote phone lines on Election Day 2002.

Shaun Hansen, 34, of Spokane, Wash., was indicted by a federal grand jury on March 8, but the charges were not made public until his arraignment yesterday.

Hansen is charged with conspiring to commit and aiding the commission of telephone harassment. Prosecutors say he was paid $2,500 to have employees at Idaho-based Mylo Enterprises place hundreds of hang-up calls to phone lines installed to help voters get rides to the polls on Nov. 5, 2002. Among the contests decided that day was the close U.S. Senate race in which Republican Rep. John Sununu beat outgoing Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen.

Three others have been convicted for their roles. Former state Republican executive director Chuck McGee served seven months in prison. Allen Raymond, former president of Virginia-based GOP Marketplace LLC, is serving a three-month sentence. James Tobin, who had served as New England chairman of President Bush's re-election campaign, faces up to five years in federal prison.
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