Allen Raymond, the GOP businessman who arranged the jamming of Democratic phone banks in New Hampshire on Election Day, 2002, emerged from prison ten days ago. And in his first ever interview about the jamming, he sounds like a man who’s gained some clarity from his three months in the slammer:
… [Raymond] said he got caught up in an ultra-aggressive atmosphere in which he initially thought the decision to jam the phones “pushed the envelope” but was legal. He also said he had been reluctant to turn down a prominent official of the RNC [James Tobin], fearing that would cost him future opportunities from an organization that was becoming increasingly ruthless.“Republicans have treated campaigns and politics as a business, and now are treating public policy as a business, looking for the types of returns that you get in business, passing legislation that has huge ramifications for business,” he said. “It is very much being monetized, and the federal government is being monetized under Republican majorities.”
For those of you who wonder whether Raymond will be getting back into politics like Chuck McGee (another ex-con who recently helped to put on a “GOP Campaign School”) — not to worry. He says he’s going into real estate investment.
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