TWO MORE FOR RNC?

Former state Senate President Tom Eaton may run for the Republican National Committee, the Status has learned. He's now making calls to gauge his chances.

Jim Coburn and Sean Mahoney have already said they want to replace Tom Rath as one of the state's two RNC members.

Now former state Rep. Dan Hughes of New Castle is all but in the race.

Hughes still wants to "talk to some people" before he makes it official. He said that protecting the first-in-the-nation status of the Presidential primary is the top job of the state's RNC members.

"Now that we're a blue state, I think we'll be threatened all the more on our side," Hughes said. "I think I can work that (RNC) crowd and keep it in our camp."

Hughes also notes his "long history" with the party working in the trenches and as a member of the state executive committee, a town chairman and delegate to the 1984 national convention.

He will announce his decision after the first of the year.

HUMPHREY? NO WAY

"I am not a candidate for state GOP chair," former Sen. Gordon Humphrey told the Status in an e-mail this week, responding to rumors.

He says his "passion and commitment is in operating the radio station I acquired two years ago, WKXL1450, and wkxl1450.com," which, he said, deliver "wholesome, uplifting programming."

Humphrey said, "If our country is to be saved, renewal will begin in our communities, not in Washington." He said his station "is doing its part."

Manchester GOP chairman Jerry Thibodeau plans a forum with the three announced candidates for the job -- Fran Wendelboe, Fergus Cullen and Will Infantine -- at the Wiggin and Nourie law firm on Jan. 11.

MOVING QUICKLY

Democratic Party vice chair Raymond Buckley is taking nothing for granted, furiously calling members of the Democratic State Committee this week seeking support as he seeks the chairmanship.

Peter Glenshaw of Lyme, a founder of Democracy for New Hampshire, declined to comment on whispers that he was mulling a run.

Outgoing chair Kathy Sullivan said many people "support Raymond because they think there is no one else in the state who is as qualified to be chairman as he is. And if Raymond wants the job, I will support him."

Rest assured, Raymond wants it and is "overwhelmed" by the breadth of support he is receiving.

SPECIAL DELIVERY

Former Republican State Committee executive director Charles McGee said under oath that a staffer for Sen. Judd Gregg delivered checks from two clients of now-jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff to the party office about a week before the 2002 election.

The donations from the Mississippi Choctaw and Agua Calienti tribes totaled $15,000. That is about the same amount McGee then paid a consulting firm to hire the telemarketer that illegally jammed Democratic and union get-out-the-vote phone banks with hang-up calls.

While questioning McGee in an Aug. 30 deposition in the now-settled phone-jamming civil suit, Democratic attorney Paul Twomey said, "But you were aware that somebody working for Senator Gregg, either his office or his campaign, hand-delivered those checks to the Republican State Committee."

McGee responded, "I believe that's correct."

Former state GOP office manager Kristy Stuart gave similar testimony.

Joel Maiola, Gregg's chief of staff, did not dispute that, but said, "We've had no involvement in this (phone-jamming) matter and any suggestion otherwise is totally baseless and without merit."

Twomey, who gave deposition transcripts to the New Hampshire Union Leader, said he is quite sure there is no Gregg connection to phone-jamming.

However, Democratic party chair Sullivan is asking, "What was Senator Gregg's relationship with Jack Abramoff?"

Maiola said he was an acquaintance of tribal lobbyist Todd Boulanger, a former Sen. Bob Smith staffer who, according to news reports, was Abramoff's partner at the time.

Maiola said Boulanger "wanted to help out in the campaign." He said he told Boulanger the state committee "was working on get-out-the vote activities and the best way to help, if he was so inclined, was to send the money to them."

Maiola said he did not solicit the contributions and could not remember how the checks got to the state committee.

No one has accused the tribes of giving the money illegally, although a dispute continues over how the party accounted for the funds in an FEC report.

Nearly a year ago, Gregg turned over to charity $12,000 in donations he had received in 2002 and 2004 from the two tribes.

MORE FROM CHUCK

McGee said during his deposition that former party chairman John Dowd authorized him to carry out the phone jamming. Dowd has repeatedly denied that, but McGee said if Dowd had told him not to go forward, the operation never would have happened.

McGee said he may have discussed the phone-jamming after it occurred with Marc Pappas, the former party vice chair; Chris Wood, party former field director; and Kevin Bleier, a former Derry and Exeter field director.

He also said that after the phone jam was called off on Election Day morning, Darrell Henry, a lobbyist affiliated with the American Gas Association who had been volunteering for the state GOP, told McGee he had called "some people" affiliated with a chamber of commerce "to pick up where it got left off."

Henry invoked the Fifth Amendment in his own deposition.

McGee also said Concord Republican Chair Jeff Newman was with him when Dowd called McGee to halt the operation. McGee said Newman accompanied him to the party office in Concord, where McGee said he called consultant Allen Raymond to call it off.

McGee testified that he had then believed that the jamming had not started. He said he did not know it had already gone on for nearly 90 minutes until this reporter called him about it three months later.

BRING IT ON

That's the underlying message from Sen. John Sununu's camp, reacting to various reports of Democrats ready to take his political hide in 2008.

The Status has learned that Sununu this month began organizing his own campaign.

During the post-Thanksgiving congressional break, his team had grassroots meetings across the state, plus at least two days of staff planning sessions and a working lunch to discuss campaign finances.

Sununu assumes he'll have a tough race in 2008, as in each of his past victories, and is wasting no time quietly preparing.

EDWARDS RETURNS

Former Sen. John Edwards' spokesman, Jennifer Palmieri, confirms the potential Presidential candidate will return on Dec. 29. He'll host a town hall-style meeting in Portsmouth, possibly at a school.

The Edwards camp is not confirming reports that he plans to announce for President on Dec. 28 in New Orleans, but that certainly appears to be the plan, apparently followed by a trip that day to first-caucus state Iowa.

Manchester state Sen. Lou D'Allesandro, a top Edwards supporter in '04, remains uncommitted for '08. He said yesterday, "I'm waiting for a meeting with him and hope to have it when he comes here next week, if not before."

YOUNG ON BOARD

Calypso Communications head Paul Young is working with Sen. John McCain's New Hampshire campaign-to-be.

The former state GOP executive director will be a paid consultant on "coalition outreach," according to McCain national field director Michael Dennehy.

Young worked on Steve Forbes' campaign in 2000 and was with Bob Dole in 1996.

ROMNEY'S PLANS

While it appears that Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is moving toward a Presidential run, we've learned that he will not announce on Jan. 8, despite other reports.

Instead, Romney is planning a fundraiser in Boston that day.

As reported last week, he'll appear in Manchester and Exeter today.

PATAKI IN PEEKSKILL

Potential GOP Presidential hopeful George Pataki, soon to leave the governor's office in Albany, will set up shop in the small upstate town of Peekskill. Alicia Preston of New Hampshire, his national press secretary, will be based there.

She'll return here on Jan. 4 with 21st Century Freedom PAC director Rob Cole to finalize a New Hampshire team. Pataki is also reaching out to various coalitions, most recently a holiday reception with Hispanic leaders from New York.

QUICK TAKES:

The Democratic State Committee is receiving reports that Barack Obama sent "thank you" cards to everyone who attended the big Dec. 10 event, not just the party leaders. Granite Staters who are on his e-mail list have received holiday messages.

Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack sent handwritten notes to several Democratic leaders thanking them for the reception he received in New Hampshire during his Dec. 1 Presidential announcement visit.

The Josiah Bartlett Center plans a forum on education funding for Jan. 11 at the Capitol Center for the Arts. Panel members will include former state Supreme Court Associate Justice Charles Douglas, attorneys Martin Gross, Eugene Van Loan, Scott Johnson and Edward Mosca, Franklin Pierce Law Center professor Richard Hesse and former House Speaker Donna Sytek.

Jeb Bradley's former press secretary, Stephanie DuBois, has been named to the same post with Florida Rep. Connie Mack.

Started in 1982, the Granite Status is completing its 25th year of delivering political news to you. Thanks, and Happy Holidays.

John DiStaso is senior political reporter of the New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News.