If the NYT won't follow upon the story, we better get to work. Allan Raymond, who was convicted along with James Tobin and Charles McGee in the NH phone jamming scandal, was president of GOP Marketplace LLC.

GOP Marketplace LLC owns GOPmarketplace.com. According to a 2000 press release, GOPmarketplace,com was funded by a venture capital firm, Helms LLC. Haley Barbour, Lanny Griffith, Ed Rogers and Edward Mathias were partners in Helm Partners, LLC.

Barbour, former chairman of the RNC and now Mississippi governor, Griffith and Rogers were partners in a law firm. Edward Mathias is a managing director of the Carlyle Group.

Allan Raymond was also on the "faculty" of Campaign University. The website address was campaign-university.com.

Tommy Hopper of The Hopper Company was a co-founder of GOPmarketplace.com and also was on the faculty of Campaign University.

The other members of the faculty of Campaign University were Rusty Paul of PR Prose Inc., Robyn Gershenoff, David S. Johnson of of Conquest Communications & Data and Sheri M. Kell also of PR Prose.

On its website in 2000, GOPmarketplace.com linked to Campaign University, Grover Norquist's Americans For Tax Reform (atr.org), the e-Freedom Coalition (e-freedom.org) and BeaVoter.org (beavoter.org).

Check the wayback machine for the foregoing website addresses.

While the phone jamming was going on, James Tobin, NHRSC 72-hour director Jayne Millerick and NHRSC Chair John Dowd were phoning Alicia Davis at the White House, according to an article on the Senate Majority website which provides a bio of Davis.

Alicia Davis began working for the White House in 2000 or 2001. She was Director of External Relations for the 2004 Republican Campaign. In March 2005, she was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary for External Affairs and Communications at the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration.

What is noteworthy is that sometime between her stint at the White House and her appointment at the Commerce Dept., she worked for FLS, a Republican telemarketing firm. The web address is http://www.fls-dci.com/. At the very least, I think we can say Alicia Davis was very familiar with Republican telemarketing operations.

FLS's client list is aq who's who in the Republican Party including Grover Norquist. One service it no longer advertises on its website is this one from an earlier version of the FLS website:

"We have just started offering a service allowing Members of Congress to send an automated message out to a targeted group of constituents within hours. These calls can be paid for with official funds when the script is approved through the House Mailing Standards. This service gives Members the unique opportunity to reach their base quickly, with a message, in their voice, addressing issues that are important to constituents in their district. This is the easiest way for the Members of Congress to call home."

The automated calling service for Congress was described on another version this way:

"One newest service is automated phone calls for Members of Congress. The messages, which are recorded by the Member, are delivered to targeted groups of constituents. These messages contain information on official business and are approved for content through House Mailing Standards, so costs can be covered out of official funds. Previously, the “franking” privilege was used solely for communicating with constituents by mail. Now, Members of Congress are using this privilege in a more active, personal way by telephone. This service is exciting because it gives Members the opportunity to get their message out quickly in a targeted way. Check out http://web.archive.org/web/20040423093836/http://www.govcalls.com/ to learn more."

The FLS website provides a handy list of Republican links worth bookmarking.

The original partners in FLS were Tony Feather, Jeff Larson and Thomas H. Synhorst. Synhorst also has a consulting firm, DCI Group, LLC. The current partners in FLS can be found on the FLS website.

Feathers, Larson and Synhorst at some point formed Feather Hodges Larson & Synhorst LLC and Feather Larson & Synhorst - DCI etc. The combined Feather firms raked in what looks to be about $15 million in the 2004 election, according to opensecrets.org.

Companies like Feathers, Larson are cute. They use various forms of their names to disguise the true amount of campaign funds they receive. Check out every listing under "Feathers" to see what I mean.

To date, Feathers et al has already taken in close to $8 million in the 2006 election cycle compared to a total of less than $4 million in the last off-year election cycle, 2002.

Oddly enough, FLS only took in less than $1 million from the Republican Party in the 2004 election cycle. I would be interested in how much FLS was paid by Congress in 2004 for its "official" automated calling to constituents.

I think there is a huge potential for off-balance sheet financing of campaign telemarketing expense. Looking at a list of FLS clients from an old version of the website, I noticed such oddball organizations like the American Academy of Opthamology and the Illinois Soybean Assoication listed. What sort of telemarketing would those two groups be doing? I can't imagine but I can imagine those two groups having issues before Congress. Hmm...

I don't know about anyone else but I'm going to keep digging into this campaign telemarketing issue. The potential for abuse is enormous. I'll keep you posted on what I dig up.

Wow, way to investigate, Mrs P! I'm impressed, but the truth is, they still won. The election went to Sununu, and the Senate stayed republican. Unless every election result is at LEAST delayed, and at MOST rerun when there is evidence of voter fraud like this, all the investigation in the world matters very little. So Tobin goes to jail...Rove could care less! They got what they wanted and the price was not too high for those who truly benefitted.

What frustrates me is that I don't hear anyone going after Diebold, which, as far as I know is still on the front-burner for our NEXT elections.

When I asked at my voting precinct about a paper receipt for my vote, the guy said, "Never! That would be the end of the secret ballot!" I was absolutely speechless. Is a (paper) absentee ballot the end of the secret ballot? Besides, I would rather lose the secrecy of my ballot than to lose the vote that I just punched in on the computer which may very well have hardware installed to switch it to a GOP candidate.

You seem very capable. Any ideas? This has to be national. It can't be just one or two people, or else in a year we'll all be typing away indignantly about how the 2006 elections were stolen, and figuring out how they did it (again).

A great many people think they are thinking when they are really rearranging their prejudices. -- Edward R. Murrow

Jan Knaus

Mrs. P. You ARE a conspiracy theorist. It just so happens that there actually WAS a conspiracy, and a successful one at that, and we can be sure it will continue -- why shouldn't it? It works!

I disagree with those who say Democrats don't have a message; I disagree that we are soft on terror; that we can't handle security issues; that we want a welfare state at best, or a communist one at worst.

But the truth is that Democrats have rolled over about the rampant voter fraud that has nearly ruined our country. One reason, as you alluded to, is the fear of the "tin hat" conspiracy label -- I guess they would rather look in from the outside of office than to take a chance at looking foolish. Why did Kerry put up with the Swift-Boating? Why did Democrats succomb to the infantile "blame-game" accusation, when the proper response was, "This administration deserves plenty of blame for its incompetence in the mishandling of Katrina, and frankly, Scotty, it is hardly a game."?

Unless someone with some influence gets on this Diebold horse and rides it out of town we are doomed.

Anyway, thanks for your stuff; I will look for your blogs regularly.

Jan Knaus