TUESDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE: U.S. Rep. Paul Hodes, D-N.H., tomorrow will tell two subcommittees of the House Judiciary Committee that Granite Staters "deserve nothing less than the full truth" about the 2002 Republican phone jamming scandal.

"It is unclear whether the White House was involved in the phone jamming scandal," Hodes says in written testimony provided to UnionLeader.com this afternoon.

He also says "there were major delays in prosecuting the phone jamming case that have not been properly investigated."

Hodes will speak before the Judiciary panel's Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law and Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security at 2 p.m. at the Rayburn House Office Building.

To read Hodes' complete written testimony, click here.

The scandal occurred when telemarketers hired by the state GOP jammed with hang-up calls the get-out-the-vote telephone lines of five state Democratic Party offices and a Manchester firefighters union office.

MONDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE. State Republican Chairman Fergus Cullen today apologized to Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton for joking about their assassination in his online party newsletter last week.

In a section of the newsletter entitled “Humor,” Cullen invited readers to send “family-appropriate political jokes” to his e-mail address.

He then writes, “Almost seven years ago I sat, as did millions of other Americans, and watched as our government underwent a peaceful transition of power. At first, I felt a swell of pride and patriotism as I watched George W. Bush take his oath of office.

"However, all that pride quickly vanished as I later watched the Clintons board Air Force One for the last time. I saw 21 Marines, in full dress uniform with rifles, fire a 21-gun salute to the outgoing President and first lady. It was then that I realized how far America’s military had deteriorated under the Clinton administration. Every last one of them missed.”

State Democratic Chairman Raymond Buckley this morning called on national and state GOP leaders to demand that Cullen resign.

“There is nothing funny -- or family friendly -- about the assassination of a President. No matter the political affiliation of the President, promoting that type of violence is outrageous and unpatriotic,” Buckley said.

Cullen responded with an apology, saying, “There is a place for humor in politics, but I can understand why some might find this joke in poor taste. No offense was intended, and I regret if any was taken. I personally apologize to President and Senator Clinton.”

MONDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE. Republican 1st District U.S. House candidate Jeb Bradley attacks Democratic incumbent Rep. Carol Shea-Porter in television and radio ads launched today throughout the district.

Bradley’s campaign debuted on the airwaves on the same day his GOP congressional primary rival, John Stephen, formally announced his candidacy in a seven-stop bus tour. But Bradley’s ads do not mention Stephen or the primary campaign, but instead focus on Shea-Porter and the general election.

Bradley says in a 30-second television ad that Shea-Porter ran for Congress promising change, but “the change we got was hardly the change we expected.”He says she voted for “higher taxes, bigger goverment, even voting against supporting our troops in combat. That’s not the change we need.” The ad is airing on WMUR.In his 60-second radio ad, Bradley begins by saying, “Let’s face it. Nobody likes to lose” -- a reference to his loss to Shea-Porter in 2006, after he had served two terms in the House. Shea-Porter defeated Bradley, 51 percent to 49 percent.

Bradley says he was “narrowly defeated” in his reelection bid because “voters wanted change.” But he then questions whether voters “really want a congresswoman who would vote to raise our taxes and increase the size of government,” and, “even worse, vote against supporting American troops in combat.

“I don’t think so,” Bradley says.

A spokesman for Shea-Porter’s campaign was not immediately available to respond.

Bradley’s radio ad is airing on WMLL-FM, WXRV-FM, WOKQ-FM and WGIR-AM.

Stephen has been a candidate for the U.S. House since last August. Today he is is formally announcing his candidacy with a 12-hour bus tour that began at 7 a.m. with stops in Glen, Conway, Laconia, Somersworth, Portsmouth, Raymond and Manchester.

FRIDAY LATE AFTERNOON UPDATE. Delegates to the state Democratic Party’s convention on May 17 will vote on a resolution calling on the U.S. House of Representatives to begin impeachment investigations of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

The resolution was among 19 brought before the convention’s resolutions committee this week. Another anti-Bush proposal calls for Congress to appoint a Commission of Accountability and Reconciliation to “indict and prosecute the guilty, and hear and address the rightful grievances of those wronged” during the Bush administration.

The impeachment resolution was sponsored by Rep. Betty Hall and was similar to a resolution she sponsored that was recently defeated by the state House of Representatives.

Among other charges, her resolution says:

-- “There is evidence in the public record that suggests President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard B. Cheney may have abused their executive power by deliberately providing misleading information to Congress and the public about the threat from Iraq in order to induce Congress to approve the use of military force.”

-- Bush and Cheney “may have authorized and condoned the rendition of prisoners across national borders and the torture of those prisoners in violation of” federal law.”

-- Bush and Cheney “may have authorized allowed the politicization of the Department of Justice and improperly obstructed Congressional oversight investigations related to this action the politicization of the Department of Justice.”

According to delegate Nancy White of Amherst, who attended the meeting, the party resolution was opposed by the convention’s resolutions committee on a 2-1 vote, but will still go before the full convention.

Two years ago, the full state convention adopted a resolution calling for Bush’s impeachment even though it had been opposed by the convention’s resolution committee.

FRIDAY NOON UPDATE. Speaking of Nashua, John McCain will likely hold a town hall-style meeting in that city when he returns to New Hampshire on June 11, according to a campaign source. The venue has not yet been confirmed.

McCain backers will be in the majority when the state’s delegation to the Republican National Convention gathers for the first time for an organizational meeting on May 20 in Concord. Attending will be 24 delegates and 21 alternates from the McCain, Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee camps.

During a conference call last night, McCain’s New Hampshire campaign steering committee was told that Ashley Maagero will be state campaign director for the general election.

She is the first New Hampshire-specific paid staffer hired for the general election and will eventually head a planned staff of at least five.

Maagero was the McCain field coordinator for Merrimack and Strafford counties. She previously worked in Massachusetts in the private sector and for GOP candidates for Congress and state offices.

McCain himself hasn't forgotten what New Hampshire meant to his campaign, judging by his recent tribute to the state at a New York City banquet.

FRIDAY MORNING UPDATE. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign is becoming active again in New Hampshire.

The campaign announced today that volunteers will hold a “Vote for Change” voter registration kickoff event tomorrow at the Nashua Public Library on Court Street.

It’s part of a 50-state voter registration drive “aimed at getting millions more Americans registered to vote in and involved in the Democratic process ahead of the November election,” the campaign said.

Campaign spokesman Reid Cherlin said the program was initiated before Tuesday’s primary results in North Carolina and Indiana. He said the announcement of the program does not mean the campaign assumes the nomination battle with Hillary Clinton is over.

But, he said, “We’ve always run this campaign with the intention of Senator Obama becoming the nominee.”

On Wednesday, as reported below, national pundits were declaring that the primary race was over and Obama had won, the Obama campaign began reaching out to Granite State voters again through Google ad purchases.

Cherlin said Obama volunteers tomorrow will receive training on how to register voters and then “go out and register folks, kind of like a canvass. But we’re not telling people who to vote for.”

He also said that any speculation about a return visit to the state by Obama is premature.

A NEW GOP CANDIDATE? The Republicans may have a second candidate for governor, after all.

With just four weeks left before the opening of the June 4-13 filing period, James "Jim" Adams of Pittsfield has Republican leaders excited.

Adams, the recently retired former New Hampshire/Vermont district manager for the U.S. Postal Service, said yesterday he is seriously thinking of running because he's upset by what he views as excessive spending in Concord.

Adams said he will make a final decision before the filling period opens and is currently trying to raise money. He says he's been encouraged by state party leaders.

While Adams would be making his first run for elective office, he's not a political novice, said state GOP Chair Fergus Cullen.

"Jim's initial strengths are management experience with a large organization with large budgets and a less tangible set of political skills that comes from rising to the top in a large political, bureaucratic organization and staying there," he said.

Adams, a New Hampshire native, spent 36 years at the postal service, the first 10 as a letter carrier. In 1988, he went to Washington as senior advisor to the assistant postmaster general and then as chief of staff to postmasters Anthony Frank and Marvin Runyon. He said he helped Runyon cut $14 billion in costs from the postal services in six years and was liaison to the White House, the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs, and worked with congressional leaders.

He returned to the state in 1997 as the district manager and "cut costs by 2.5 to 3 percent a year in every year I was here."

He retired on Feb. 29 and about three weeks ago, became interested in running.

"I was concerned with the state of the economy and with the 17.5 percent spending increase in the state budget," he said. "Where I came from, that sort of budget would have meant the individual in charge would no longer be there."

Adams called Democratic Gov. John Lynch "a good man and a very popular governor," but he believes the budget and government can be cut.

He took the anti-broad based tax pledge in an interview, and said that no, he is not related to former White House chief of staff and Gov. Sherman Adams.

Joe's still in

If Adams runs, he'll likely face state Sen. Joe Kenney in a primary.

Kenney shows no signs of quitting and has recently been "dogging" Lynch at the governor's "state of the state" speeches, according to aid Rep. Casey Crane.

Kenney has been calling Lynch's new plan for a higher cigarette tax and a tax on Texas Hold 'Em charity games "tax and hold 'em," Crane said.

The hearing is on

After a two month delay, the 2002 GOP phone jamming scandal has been scheduled to be taken up by two U.S. House Judiciary Committee subcommittees next Wednesday, May 14.

U.S. Rep. Paul Hodes said he will ask in testimony that the joint panel look into "numerous calls that were made to the (Bush) White House around the critical times leading up to the 2002 election and the jamming operation."

Court records show most of those calls were made by former Republican National Committee official Jim Tobin, whose acquittal on criminal charges related to the scandal has been appealed by the Department of Justice.

Refresher: It all began when the former executive director of the Republican State Committee hired a telemarketer in the fall of 2002 to make hundreds of hang-up calls on the morning of Election Day aimed at disrupting get-out-the-vote phone banks at five state Democratic offices and a Manchester firefighters union office.

Hodes, who called for the congressional probe last year, he hopes his colleagues probe those White House calls and find out "who was involved, who knew what and when they knew it."

He also said he will ask subcommittees to probe "an apparent delay in prosecution" by the justice department until after the 2004 election and "whether the prosecutors were somehow instructed to delay or were impeded for political advantage," Hodes said.

Among those also testifying will be Allen Raymond, who pleaded guilty and served prison time for being the middle-man in helping to set up the jamming by linking the state committee to the telemarketer, Democratic attorney Paul Twomey, and professor Mark Miller of New York University.

Twomey said he was pleased the issue is finally getting a hearing because "it raises serious questions about the federal justice system. The Department of Justice is our last defense against government run amok and if it's politicized, we don't have any real defenses."

Beefing up

State Democratic Chair Raymond Buckley a few weeks ago predicted on the BlueHampshire.com web site, "I absolutely believe that there will not be a single Republican state senator north of Derry after November."

If staffing up is a measuring stick, Buckley, Senate President Sylvia Larsen and the party are working toward that end.

The Senate Democratic Caucus PAC, chaired by Larsen, has so far hired a seven-member full-timers.

The new caucus director is Ian Graves, who worked on the 2002 election in the state, went to Washington and returned in 2005 to work for the John Kerry campaign and then the state party as 1st Congressional District field director.

The finance director is Meagan Coffman, who was a volunteer coordinator for the 2002 campaign, worked in the presidential election in 2004 and returned in 2007 after stint in Washington to coordinate Katrina Swett's brief campaign for the U.S. Senate. She has also worked for the Manchester Democrats and Hillary Clinton's campaign.

They join Senate Caucus staffers Dan McKenna, Jamie Judd, Nigel Henry, Jarad Kings and Silas Russell, who have been on board since early February and are sharing coordinating activities in the 24 districts.

Buckley said that each Senate campaign will also eventually have its own paid manager.

At least 11 of the 14 Democratic incumbents are expected to run again. Peter Burling announced on Monday he won't seek a third term and Iris Estabrook of Durham and, in the past few days, David Gottesman of Nashua, have emerged as question marks.

Manchester attorney Bob Backus is expected to challenge Senate Republican Leader Ted Gatsas again, while first-term Rep. Steve Spratt of Greenville plans to take on Milford Republican Peter Bragdon.

In June 2006, the Democrats' caucus had $148,000 on hand heading into the campaign season. We're told that when this June's report will show "a much larger" total.

Separately, the House Democratic Caucus has hired Ken Hodges, who ran Backus's campaign in 2006, while the state party has hired Mara Lee as coordinated campaign field director, who has been with the Clinton campaign in Nevada, New Mexico, Texas and Indiana.

As for the GOP

The Senate Republican Committee PAC has no staff, yet, and no firm challengers to the Democratic incumbents.

Other than Kenney and Bob Clegg, who is running for Congress, the eight GOP incumbents are expected to seek reelection.

Expected to run for Kenney's District 3 seat are former Reps. Sam Cataldo of Farmington and David Babson of Ossipee. Reps. Sharon Carson of Londonderry and James Lawrence of Hudson are expected to run for Clegg's District 14 seat.

In the First CD

Republicans from New Hampshire to Washington are talking up this week's UNH poll showing Democrat Rep. Carol Shea-Porter in potential reelection trouble.

The poll had Jeb Bradley ahead of the incumbent 45 to 39 percent, with 13 percent undecided, and Shea-Porter ahead of John Stephen 43 to 35 percent with 20 percent undecided. The margin of error was 6.2 percent.

Democrats are unconcerned. They reason that the many self-described "independents" who favored Bradley over Shea-Porter by 20 percent are actually registered Republicans who like to call themselves independent.

They note that among registered undeclared voters, Shea-Porter bests Bradley by 4 percent.

Meanwhile, Stephen tomorrow will host Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist and sign the group's "Taxpayer Protection Pledge." He'll formally announce his candidacy during a district-wide bus tour on Monday.

Today, he'll announce that his campaign co-chair is former state Senate Finance Committee Chair Chuck Morse and co-chairs are businessman John Stabile, attorney Chuck Douglas, former GOP chair Wayne Semprini, former Executive Councilor Ruth Griffin, Sen. Jack Barnes, former safety commissioner Dick Flynn and Reps. Peter Batula and Carolyn Brown.

Norquist will appear on Chuck Morse's (not the same Morse as mentioned above) WSMN talk show tomorrow morning.

Bradley will be endorsed today by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the president of which says Bradley's election "will help produce sustained economic growth and promote America's competitiveness in world markets."

Big Clegg endorsements

In the 2nd District GOP race, Clegg today will be endorsed by former Gov. Walter Peterson, Rockingham County Attorney Jim Reams and Merrimack County Commissioner J.D. Colcord.

Jennifer Horn's campaign, meanwhile, is touting the UNH poll numbers showing that she does just as well (or just as poorly) against Hodes (25 to 52 percent) as veteran politician Clegg (24 to 51 percent).

Shaheen and Sununu

Pumped from the UNH poll showing her with a 52 to 40 percent lead over John Sununu, Jeanne Shaheen's campaign today will unveil an upgraded Web site by Liberty Concepts.

The site is loaded with multimedia features and a link to "create your own fund-raising page."

Sununu, meanwhile, has given his first interview attacking Shaheen to veteran Republican blogger/activist Patrick Hynes's Web site, NowHampshire.com. He called Shaheen a flip-flopper on the Bush tax cuts, U.S. involvement in Iraq and on broad based taxes.

Ready for November?

The Barack Obama campaign yesterday began reaching out again to Granite Staters through Google ad purchases.

His ads began appearing on UnionLeader.com for the first time since the presidential primary and include a link to "sign up for invitations to campaign events."

Does this mean Obama is planning a return visit, this time as the presumptive nominee?

Smith: Everything's fine

A Florida newspaper reports that former New Hampshire Sen. Bob Smith, a longtime Florida resident, has joined Coldwell Banker to sell homes in southwest Florida.

"I have a lot of confidence in the market now," Smith says. "I think the market is coming back."

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