Both sides don't do it

Democrats are demanding a big settlement from the Republican phone-jamming effort in 2002.

New Hampshire Democrats says Republicans should pay them $4.1 million in damages for an illegal phone-jamming operation by an Idaho company that disrupted get-out-the-vote operations on Election Day 2002.

That's nearly half of what Democrats spent on their six-month effort, which was disrupted for nearly two hours the day it was supposed to pay off.

The state and national Republican parties say they should pay only $4,974 - the actual cost of the disrupted telephone service and rental costs - to $21,287.

[...]

The Republicans hired a telemarketing firm, Mylo Enterprises of Sand Point, Idaho, to place hundreds of hang-up calls to phone banks for the Democratic Party and the Manchester firefighters union, a nonpartisan group offering rides to the polls. The election featured a hotly contested U.S. Senate race in which U.S. Rep. John Sununu defeated Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen.

Two Republican operatives served prison time after pleading guilty to criminal charges in the case, and Shaun Hansen, the telemarketer from Spokane, Wash. who owned Mylo Enterprises, agreed this month to plead guilty. Hansen is scheduled to be sentenced in February.

The attorneys can fight it out over damages; once an election is over the actual damage is done. There were Republican dirty tricks with phone calls this year as well.
Both sides don't do it, only one side does the dirty tricks phone calls. And it's not just "playing rough," it's illegal and unprincipled.

Our state Legislature needs to crack down on this. They can start by banning all political "robo-calls." That will put Democrats squarely on the side of regular people, who don't need telephone harassment every election season.