New Hampshire's Phone Phlap
N.H. GOP Director Quits Over Phone Flap
This one's for all you Josh Marshall haters out there. Follow this one ... the New Hampshire GOP employs a Virginia telemarketing company (GOP Marketplace) to do some GOTV work for them. Well, it turns out they decided to up the ante by doing a slew of drive-by call/hang ups on Dem campaign offices as well as the Manchester Firefighters Union, who was doing GOTV work for Jeanne Shaheen. The idea being to prevent their own efforts and hopefully gain a leg up on the final stretch. So will the National Review be devoting an entire issue to the illegitimate election of John Sununu now?
In any event, even Josh notes that the 4% margin Sununu won by probably isn't enough to overcome with even the best phone bank. But I kinda like the take that "... cheating isn't okay just because you probably would have won anyway." Yeah, just tell that to Richard Nixon (were it possible).
There's also this take:
Now, in the free-for-all world of political telemarketing, there's what you might call an evolving standard for what's just playing hardball and what's way out of bounds. (What sounds criminal to some, is just ... well, 'innovative' to more creative minds.) But I think this clearly qualifies as way, way out of bounds. Indeed, it may have broken New Hampshire state laws against phone harassment. And New Hampshire authorities, in addition to pursuing the matter themselves, have passed the case on to the Justice Department.
That one might prove a little more troublesome, but my gut tells me the end result is going to be a fine that doesn't really matter one bit. The next campaign that hires them gets a little heat, it qualifies as inside baseball, and that's pretty much it. Still, it warrants criticism and Josh is now on the prowl for who else used the same operatives as that campaign.