You may recall that the New Hampshire Republican Party jammed telephone lines used by the state Democrats' "get out the vote" effort on Election Day 2002. The dirty trick sent more than one GOP operative to jail.

New Hampshire Democrats also sued the GOP. Republican lawyers argued that the Dems should recover nothing beyond the cost of renting the phones that the GOP rendered useless. The judge accepted the opposing argument: the Election Day calls were the culimination of seven months of work, seven months that were wasted when the calls couldn't be made. The judge will let the Dems seek the costs they incurred in the seven month get-out-the-vote drive, excluding costs (like signs and office rent) that can't be directly linked to the Republican phone-blocking scheme.

The ruling allows the Democrats to ask for millions of dollars in damages, rather than the $5,000 they spent on telephone rental.

Update: As a reader notes, the case settled soon after this ruling, with a GOP agreement to pay $125,000 to the Democrats and to donate money to two local charities.