Finally, some good news for the Franken campaign

After weeks of being battered on tax issues, Al Franken’s senate campaign has received some welcome media coverage on the topic in recent days. In today’s Star Tribune Pat Doyle and Dan Browning revisit the state Republican Party’s ongoing financial troubles, citing repeated Federal Election Commission reporting violations. The Strib notes that the state GOP has received 28 letters from the FEC over the past 18 months seeking information on disclosure failures, questionable fund transfers, and other accounting issues. The party has spent some $78,000 on accounting services since early last year trying to rectify the problems. The issues initially surfaced early last year when the GOP amended 52 FEC disclosures and fired longtime finance director Dwight Tostenson after he complained of irregularities.

Meanwhile conservative columnist Craig Westover has been defending Franken’s tax deficiencies (albeit somewhat backhandedly) in a variety of forums, most recently the Pioneer Press. Westover contends that the issue is not the senate candidate’s failure to properly pay what he owes, but rather a convoluted tax system that is nearly impossible to navigate.