Nat’l GOP Operative Says He Knew Nothing of Phone JammingHere’s one more for the record: Chris LaCivita, the National Political Director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told TPMmuckraker last night that he had nothing to do with James Tobin’s plan to jam Democratic phone banks on Election Day, 2002. According to him, it was strictly a local affair.
LaCivita, a conservative political operative best known to Democrats for his work as a media consultant to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (whom he lovingly refers to as “the swifties”), also said that the same went for the NRSC. But when pressed about why he’d made an appearance on the prosecution’s witness list for Tobin’s trial, he referred further questions to his lawyer.
LaCivita, Tobin’s boss for the 2002 elections, denied knowing anything about the jamming until it was reported for the first time in the press – which would have been February, 2003, three months after the crime. “We like to win, but we like to win fair,” he said.
He went on to say the same for anyone at the RNSC: the “RNSC would never engage in that kind of activity – haven’t, wont.” He went on to say, “I think you’d get the same out of anyone else in D.C.”
When asked why he had shown up on the prosecution’s witness list at Tobin’s trial, he said that it had to do with the simple fact of his being Tobin’s superior. I pressed him for more, and he said, “We’ve already given our statements to [the Justice Department] – there’s not any more to say than that.” He directed to me to his lawyer, Richard Cullen. Cullen could not be immediately reached for comment.
About the recent rash of media coverage about the jamming, LaCivita said: “my friends have been emailing me some of it. Some of it’s kind of amusing.” He didn’t specify which pieces he’d found so funny. Something makes me think he’d enjoy TPMmuckraker.com, though.
So there – one more player on the record about his role in the phone jamming. Was that so hard?
Ken Mehlman’s already cleared the staff of the White House Office of Political Affairs. Who’s next? The RNC? Terry Nelson? C’mon, give us a call back. It won’t hurt a bit.
