Dirty Tricks

Political campaigns have overt and covert operations. Some of the hidden activity is legitimate, including "oppo research" done to find inconsistencies in a rival candidate's record. But other activities are dishonest, even potentially illegal. Those who carry out the dirty tricks—push-polls, anonymous fliers, bogus letters meant to incite the recipient against a particular candidate—sometimes go to great lengths to remain anonymous. But Allen Raymond eventually got exposed. He served in several legitimate jobs in the Republican Party, including chief of staff to the co-chair of the Republican National Committee, before he set up his own firm with help from elite Republican investors. It was while heading that outfit, GOP Marketplace, that Raymond got involved in dubious activities and crossed the line. He served three months in prison in 2006 for participating in a scheme to jam Democratic Party phone banks on Election Day in New Hampshire in 2002. In his new book, "How to Rig an Election: Confessions of a Republican Operative," Raymond explains how he got into the sleazy side of the business and how it works. He spoke to NEWSWEEK's Jeffrey Bartholet about his misdeeds and his views on the tricks being used in the current presidential campaign. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: In a nutshell, can you explain what you did that put you in prison?
Allen Raymond: This is what is known as the New Hampshire phone-jamming scandal. Essentially, it was to disrupt the phone lines of the Democratic Party's Election Day phone banks in Manchester, N.H.

You did this on behalf of whom?
The client was the New Hampshire Republican State Committee. But I was originally contacted to do it by the New England regional political director of the Republican National Committee. [The executive director of the New Hampshire Republican Party, Charles McGee, pleaded guilty to his involvement and served seven months in jail. The New England regional political director, James Tobin, has won a retrial after a successful appeal of his conviction.] This was November 2002. The top of the ballot was [Democrat Jeanne] Shaheen vs. [Republican John] Sununu for the U.S. Senate.

The idea was to stop the Democrats' get-out-the vote efforts?
Yeah, the original intent that was described to me was to disrupt lines of communication. The intent was to tie up the phone lines [at the phone banks] so no calls could go in or out. They were manned by Democratic state party staff and volunteers.

Did your actions affect the outcome?
It's hard to say, because [the operation] was shut down very quickly. It only went on for an hour or an hour and a half.

And it was shut down because somebody within the Republican leadership in New Hampshire suddenly realized this was illegal?
Well, what happened was that on Election Day I got a panicked phone call from the executive director of the New Hampshire Republican Party, desperate to find me and shut down the operation. The reason he gave was that it was illegal and needed to stop.