The fees were paid to FLS Connect, one of the largest GOP fundraising firms in the country. The company’s principals are Republican operatives Tony Feather, Jeff Larson and Thomas Synhorst. Its clients include the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee, and all 50 GOP state parties, according to the firm’s web site. The Republican Party of Minnesota, for instance, paid FLS Connect just over $20,000 last month for telemarketing work, according to Federal Election Commission records.

“Coleman’s ties to some of the most well connected, influential Republican operatives and lobbyists in Washington are political and personal,” Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor party chairman Brian Melendez said at a press conference held this afternoon to spotlight the connections. “These ties run so deep that you almost can’t tell where Norm Coleman ends and DCI begins.”

Melendez described FLS Connect and DCI Group as “sister companies.” FLS Connect was originally incorporated in 1999 as Feather, Hodges, Larson & Synhorst, according to filings with the Arizona Corporation Commission. In 2001 the firm’s name was changed to FLS-DCI. Then in 2006 the company’s moniker was switched to FLS Connect. Synhorst is a founder and current chairman of DCI Group, while Feather worked as a lobbyist for the firm from 2001 to 2006. “It’s basically the same group of people who have established and run both organizations,” Melendez said.

Coleman’s ties to Larson (a Hudson, Wisconsin resident) date back at least to the period when Coleman was mayor of St. Paul. According to the Pioneer Press, Larson’s firm was hired to assist with the unsuccessful 1999 referendum campaign to build a Twins stadium in St. Paul. Larson currently serves as treasurer of Coleman’s Northstar Leadership PAC and CEO of the Minneapolis St. Paul 2008 Host Committee, which is tapped with organizing the upcoming Republican National Convention.

The DCI Group initially provoked controversy when Newsweek reported that the firm had been paid $348,000 to lobby for Myanmar’s oppressive military regime. Doug Goodyear subsequently resigned as coordinator of the Republican National Convention owing to his DCI ties. Then Doug Davenport stepped down as a regional director for John McCain’s presidential campaign because of his work for the lobbying outfit.

Since 2004 Coleman’s campaign and leadership PAC have received roughly $10,000 from DCI Group employees and an affiliated PAC, as first reported by Minnesota Monitor. The DFL has called on the senator to divest himself of the contributions and donate the money to charity. Coleman has declined to act on these demands.

“Now we understand a little better why Coleman refused to rid himself of the campaign cash,” Melendez said. “It doesn’t come from garden-variety Washington lobbyists. It comes from the core of his political operation, from his closest associates and personal confidantes.”

(Coleman campaign spokesman Tom Erickson did not immediately return a call seeking comment.)

The first-term senator is embroiled in a tough re-election campaign. According to a poll released yesterday by Rasmussen Reports, Coleman leads likely DFL challenger Al Franken by a statistically insignificant two percentage points.

DCI Group has been under fire for its work lobbying on behalf of the despotic military junta in Myanmar. The man that John McCain tapped to run the Republican National Convention, Doug Goodyear, stepped down from the post after his DCI ties surfaced in Newsweek over the weekend. Doug Davenport, who was charged with heading up the McCain campaign in the mid-Atlantic states, also resigned owing to his work for the lobbying firm.

As first reported on Minnesota Monitor, Sen. Norm Coleman has received nearly $10,000 in campaign contributions from individuals and a political action committee affiliated with DCI. The DFL has called on Coleman to give the money to charity, but the senator has so far refused.

No other members of the Minnesota delegation have received DCI-related donations during the last three election cycles, according to FEC records.

On Tuesday, the Minnesota DFL criticized Sen. Norm Coleman for accepting campaign contributions from a lobbying group that represented the military regime of Myanmar. Minnesota Monitor first reported on the contributions early Tuesday morning.

“We are calling on Senator Coleman to immediately divest himself of all contributions from DCI employees and the company’s PAC, and to donate the money to charity,” said Minnesota DFL Chair Brian Melendez. “Senator Coleman should rid himself of tainted contributions from DCI, a lobbying firm that has represented an oppressive regime that is denying vital assistance to its own people during a time of crisis.”

Representatives from Coleman’s campaign did not return requests for comment to Minnesota Monitor on Tuesday. But the campaign did blame Al Franken, in a statement to the Associated Press, for a completely unrelated matter — a transfer of $875,000 from the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club in New York City to Air America Radio. Franken was a host for the station at the time.

“Franken continues to remain silent about his role in this matter,” Coleman campaign spokester Tom Erickson said. “As for returning a legal contribution from an individual and company engaged in legal activities, of course we will not be returning the contribution.”

The Franken campaign responded as well: “Norm Coleman took nearly $10,000 from a firm representing an oppressive military regime,” Franken campaign spokesman Andy Barr said in an e-mail to the AP. “He won’t return the money, and he won’t say what he did in return for it. That’s shocking. And if the best he can do by way of explaining this stunning and suspicious behavior is to recycle long-discredited smears, Minnesotans are going to start to wonder if there isn’t an even uglier story soon to come.”