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.

The Myanmar connection forced him to resign “so as not to become a distraction in this campaign.”

According to Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff:

[T]he firm was paid $348,000 in 2002 to represent Burma’s military junta, which had been strongly condemned by the State Department for its human-rights record and remains in power today. Justice Department lobbying records show DCI pushed to “begin a dialogue of political reconciliation” with the regime. It also led a PR campaign to burnish the junta’s image, drafting releases praising Burma’s efforts to curb the drug trade and denouncing “falsehoods” by the Bush administration that the regime engaged in rape and other abuses.

Convention spokesman Matt Burns told the Pioneer Press, “In planning any event of this size — and like with any large organization — there are bound to be comings and goings. You simply adjust and move forward.”

The McCain campaign still employs one member of the DCI Group. Doug Davenport is his regional campaign manager and, as head lobbyist for DCI, would have dealt directly with the Myanmar military regime.