Fec

U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen’s campaign paid his wife more than $10,000 in the last five months of 2008, according to Federal Election Commission records. (No such revelations about his DFL opponent, a bachelor.)

Norm Coleman used media coverage of his dealings with friend and benefactor Nasser Kazeminy to argue to the Federal Election Commission that he should be able to spend campaign cash to fight two lawsuits that implicate him in a cash-funneling scheme.

Norm Coleman has formally asked the Federal Election Commission: Can his campaign pay for lawyers to fight civil-suit allegations that implicate him in a cash-funneling scheme?

The latest in the spat over Minnesota’s U.S. Senate seat: Al Franken is due to file his reply to Norm Coleman’s election-contest appeal at the state Supreme Court today. Senate GOP leaders raised money at a Washington, D.C., steakhouse for Norm Coleman — under new, higher gift limits. And on YouTube, a frog channels Coleman covering [...]

Norm Coleman has wondered whether he could spend campaign cash on lawyers to fight charges that a donor secretly funneled him $75,000. No answer on that yet (he never officially asked), but today the Federal Election Commission told another member of Congress his campaign can pay for a home security system.

The Federal Election Commission didn’t tell Al Franken what he wanted to hear about setting up his own fund to cover election-contest legal costs. Franken’s legal rhetoric about “no end in sight” didn’t hurt his case, a commissioner tells MnIndy, but the specter of future recounts did.

The Federal Election Commission decided Thursday that a Democratic Party group can set up a special fundraising account to benefit Al Franken in his election dispute with Norm Coleman. But the FEC had no opinion on whether Franken’s campaign may also establish an account for the current election-contest phase.

The Federal Elections Commission signaled today that Al Franken and national Democrats will get an OK to raise funds above existing caps in the ongoing Senate election contest in Minnesota.

Three Republican groups are telling the federal government they agree with Democrat Al Franken on something: There should be more ways for donors to send more dollars to support the rivals in Minnesota’s ongoing U.S. Senate election contest.

A month after his aide said he’d seek “necessary approvals at the proper time,” former U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman apparently has not asked the Federal Election Commission for an advisory opinion about whether he can spend campaign cash on legal expenses related to two civil suits that allege benefactor Nasser Kazeminy steered unreported payments to him [...]