Appeals court reverses conviction in phone-jamming case

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) -- A federal appeals court on Wednesday reversed the conviction and sentence of James Tobin, the former regional chairman of President Bush's re-election campaign, who was sentenced to 10 months in prison for his role in an Election Day phone-jamming plot against New Hampshire Democrats.

Tobin, of Bangor, Maine, was convicted in December 2005 on two criminal charges of telephone harassment in the scheme, which tied up phone lines set up by the state Democratic Party and the Manchester firefighters' union for more than an hour when Republican John Sununu won a hotly contested U.S. Senate race against then-Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston ruled that the statute under which Tobin was convicted "is not a close fit" for what Tobin did and questioned whether the government showed that Tobin showed an intent or purpose to harass.

"Oh my God, wow, you know sometimes there is no justice," said New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairwoman Kathy Sullivan, who on Tuesday announced that Democrats will ask Congress to investigate whether prosecution of the scheme was intentionally delayed until after the presidential election in 2004.

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