Ugly

Here’s an item from the Manchester Union Leader that neither the national press nor the blog world [Wrong! See below.] has paid much attention to: a contractor working for the New Hampshire Republican Party jammed Democratic and labor-union phone banks on election day, in apparent violation of state and federal law. The executive director of the NH Republican Party, having been caught lying about it, quit. The only coverage I can find outside New Hampshire was this well-buried story in the Washington Post.

CORRECTION

Several readers point out that Josh Marshall has been all over this one. My bad.

Turns out Josh has lots of yummy stuff: the guy in charge of the dirty-tricks operation, Allen Raymond, is also the Executive Director of something called the Republican Leadership Council, with a board full of heavyweight Republican politicos from what’s left of the “moderate” wing of the party.

Watch this one. If Josh keeps up his reporting, this could be the next big story to jump from the blog world to the real world. And notice whether any of the right-bloggers who are so eager to scream “voting fraud” at Democrats deign to notice.

Author: Mark Kleiman

Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out. Books: Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken) When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993) Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989) UCLA Homepage Curriculum Vitae Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com