Minnesota GOP has history of FEC reporting problems

Since 2000, the Republican Party of Minnesota has had problems complying with the Federal Election Commission’s requirements for reporting, a fact made painfully clear over the last month as the party has amended virtually every report it has made since 2002. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is responsible for enforcing election laws pertaining to contributions and expenditures by political committees and campaigns.

In 2007, Dwight Tostenson, former finance director for the party, was fired after raising complaints about the party’s bookkeeping. He charged the party with underreporting of debts and obligations, delays in paying staff expenses and misappropriation of retirement money.

Republican Party chair Ron Carey (pictured above) told the Star Tribune last year that the issues had been fixed.

“We’ve looked at all the issues that he raised, and where there was corrective action required, we took corrective action,” Carey said. “Dwight and I came to a mutual, amicable agreement for our separation.”

He continued, “We investigated what the requirements were and made sure we were immediately in full compliance with that.”

But the party hasn’t been in full compliance for some time. In 2001, the party was fined $16,000 for failing to file a report, and rumors of financial problems swirled in 2002.

Those rumors appear to have been accurate as the party has amended every month’s FEC report dating back to the beginning of 2002. In the month of May alone, the party has amended its reports 70 times to correct discrepancies. A good example of the irregularities is demonstrated in the party’s year-end report for 2006.

The first report sent to the FEC said that the party had $136,000 in cash on hand. An amendment made in 2007 said the party had close to $2.8 million in cash on hand, a $2.78 million discrepancy. Then, last week, the party amended the report again to show that at the end of 2006 it had a negative balance of $28,000.

Last week, Hamline University law and political science Prof. David Schultz told the Star Tribune that all the amending looks fishy. “All these amended reports suggest either a concerted effort to hide something or a consistent pattern of bad accounting and fiscal management.” Either way it doesn’t look good.

Carey and the Republican Party have spent considerable time attacking U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken for accounting errors on his tax returns. But Carey hasn’t responded to questions about the party’s financial issues. Carey didn’t respond to Star Tribune requests for comment on the issue, and when pressed for information by a blogger at a press conference attacking Franken, he declined to speak.

But are the irregularities in the party’s FEC reports a big deal? In the complex world of campaign finance reporting, amending reports is a common practice. Blogger TwoPuttTommy gives the breakdown locally and nationally on amended reports. Since 2001, the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party has amended its reports 102 times, a number that pales in comparison to the Republican party’s 283 amendments.

A comparison to party operations in other states offers further evidence the Minnesota GOP numbers are outside the norm. Since 2001, the Texas Republican Party has amended …

Continued: Click “Read More”its reports 150 times, and the state Democrats 67. In Iowa, the Republicans amended 52 times and the Democrats 111. In Florida, the Republican Party there amended 45 times and Democrats 133. Missouri Republicans offered amendments to their reports 149 times and the Democrats 117. In Maryland and West Virginia the numbers are similar: fewer than 200 since 2001.

The accounting problems have angered some in the party. Joe Repya, who ran to replace Carey as party chair last year because of complaints of financial mismanagement, fired off this missive on his blog: “There are those of us in the MN GOP that are sick and tired of the shell games, delay tactics and lame excuses that we have been getting for the last year,” he wrote. “It is time to stop trying to deflect the problem as an attempt by the Star Tribune to discredit Republicans. These are not imaginary problems.”

With all the financial issues currently plaguing the party, it’s important to note: Ron Carey has been intimately involved with the party’s finances since 1997, first as the party’s treasurer and then as the party’s chairman.