Manchester – A judge yesterday allowed state Democratic attorneys to question a former Republican national chairman and other high-ranking GOP officials about an illegal election day 2002 phone-jamming operation.

Attorneys for the national and state Republican parties did not object to the Democrats’ request in Hillsborough County Superior Court prior to the ruling by Hillsborough County Superior Court Judge Philip Mangones. But targets of soon-to-be-issued Democratic subpoenas will have the legal option of trying to have those subpoenas quashed in court, attorneys said.

The targets include former Republican National Chairman Ed Gillespie, former White House political affairs official Alicia Davis and two former Republican Party officials who are now consultants well-known in political circles. The Democrats also want to examine cell phone records of former White House political affairs director Ken Mehlman, the current RNC chairman.

The Democrats want to know what the officials knew — and when — about the operation that jammed get-out-the-vote phone lines at Democratic and union headquarters for nearly two hours on election morning nearly four years ago.

Gillespie did not return a call yesterday seeking comment and Mehlman referred an inquiry by The Associate Press to the U.S. Justice Department.

RNC attorney Robert Kelner said he did not object to the motion because the individuals targeted by the Democrats either never were, or are no longer, affiliated with his client. Hearing no dissent, Judge Philip Mangones granted the Democrats’ motion, formally allowing the appointment of commissioners to take out-of-state depositions in Washington, D.C. and Virginia.

The motion was the latest in a host of legal maneuvers made since the state Democratic Party filed a civil suit against the Republican State Committee two years ago.

Democrats are seeking monetary damages but are primarily using the suit as a tool to try to find out how far up the state and national Republican hierarchy planning for the phone-jam scheme reached.

Yesterday’s ruling was a key step in the Democrats’ efforts. A Democratic National Committee spokesman said it “brings us one step closer to finding out who knew what and when they knew it on the criminal scheme to disenfranchise New Hampshire voters.”

Telephone records submitted during a 2005 criminal trial of convicted phone-jam conspirator James Tobin, a former RNC official, showed he made dozens of calls to the White House political affairs office in the days and hours before the jamming began.

Former political affairs office director Mehlman has confirmed Tobin called White House staffer Davis but said the calls were routine and his office had nothing to do with the phone jam.

Gillespie said in May he remembered telling someone at the White House several years earlier that he, as RNC chairman, had authorized having the RNC pay Tobin’s legal bills, which eventually approached $3 million.

Gillespie said he could not remember who he told and said even if the White House had objected, “It was too late. I had made the decision and they were not involved in it.”

In addition to Gillespie and Davis, Democrats try to depose:

• Chris Cupit, who worked with Raymond and allegedly helped Raymond and McGee plan the scheme.

• Terry Nelson, a Washington political consultant who was Tobin’s RNC boss in 2002.

• Chris Lacivita, a consultant who was Tobin’s boss in 2002 at the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

• Darrell Henry, a Washington lobbyist who McGee testified was interested in continuing the phone jam after it was abruptly called off by former state GOP Chairman John Dowd.

• The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which allegedly was contacted by Henry to help him continue the phone-jam.

Tobin is appealing a conviction on telephone harassment charges for helping set up the scheme. Former Republican State Committee executive director Charles McGee and former GOP consultant Allen Raymond served prison time after pleading guilty to similar charges. Shaun Hansen, who headed the telemarketing firm subcontracted by Raymond to place the hang-up calls, faces trial on Oct. 3.

The ruling also allows Democrats to subpoena for a wide range of White House telephone and cell phone records and the identities of people who had specific telephone numbers at the White House political affairs office from Oct. 1, 2002 to March 1, 2003.

Democratic attorneys said yesterday they also hope to conduct in-state depositions of GOP officials, including former state GOP chairmen Dowd and Jayne Millerick, former party vice chair Mark Pappas and former state GOP staffer Christy Stuart.

Kelner said he hopes to take about 15 depositions. An attorney for the GOP senatorial committee said he hopes to depose eight.

The judge yesterday also pushed back a deadline for key motions in the case from Aug. 27 to Oct. 1, but did not change the scheduled trial date of Nov. 27.

Last month, Mangones kept the case alive but threw out five of eight Democratic allegations, including claims that the GOP harassed Granite Staters and interfered with their constitutional right to vote. He preserved claims that the GOP intentionally interfered with their telephone systems.

Kelner of the RNC said yesterday he will file a motion by Oct. 1 to have the case dismissed, while the state GOP has filed a counter-suit charging the Democratic suit is a baseless political ploy.