Allen Raymond, the Republican consultant who carried out an illegal phone-jamming scheme in New Hampshire on Election Day in 2002, was sentenced to five months in prison yesterday.

Raymond pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in June for his role in the scheme, which was coordinated by the former executive director of the New Hampshire State Republican Committee. At his sentencing at the U.S. District Court in Concord, Raymond was also ordered to pay a $15,600 fine, serve two years of supervised release and perform 200 hours of community service.

Raymond did not comment as he left the courthouse. In a statement to Judge Joseph DiClerico, Raymond said, "I did a bad thing. It was a terrible endeavor to undertake. However, I take responsibility for those actions."

Raymond was director of GOP Marketplace, a Virginia political consulting group, at the time of the phone-jamming. According to prosecutors, Raymond conspired with Chuck McGee, former head of the state Republican Party, and James Tobin,a national party official, to block get-out-the-vote calls being made on Election Day from the Manchester firefighters' union and Democratic Party offices. McGee pleaded guilty to the charges last year. Tobin has denied involvement and is scheduled to go to trial in June.

Prosecutors asked DiClerico to consider a lesser sentence for Raymond since he had provided them with information about McGee and Tobin. And Raymond's attorney, John Durkin, said his client's career was ruined. Durkin said Raymond had been taken advantage of by Tobin, who at the time was regional director of the national party committee working to elect Republican senators. Tobin later became the Northeast director of President Bush's re-election campaign.

But DiClerico admonished Raymond for his actions. "What about common sense?" the judge said. "What about a person's moral compass?"

The state Democratic Party has filed a separate civil lawsuit against McGee, Raymond and the state GOP for the phone-jamming. Speaking outside the federal courthouse yesterday, Democratic Party Chairwoman Kathy Sullivan said final blame in the scheme shouldn't stop with Raymond.

"The real outrage is that the Republican Party thought that winning at all costs was the goal and didn't draw lines," Sullivan said.

Warren Henderson, state Republican Party chairman, said in a statement: "Mr. Raymond's role in the 'phone jamming'during the 2002 election was intolerable and offensive to all citizens of New Hampshire and deserving of serious punishment."

Henderson said the state GOP would continue to work with federal investigators.

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By DANIEL BARRICK

Monitor staff