The Republican Party of Minnesota Thursday night announced it agreed to pay a $170,000 fine for a series of federal campaign finance violations between 2006 and 2008.
For three years, the party failed to properly report debts on its federal campaign finance reports. It also inappropriately transferred money between two accounts. "We learned a very hard lesson," said Party Chairman Tony Sutton, who was the party's treasurer during 2006 and 2007.
"I could say something here about excessive government regulation but we're taking our lumps and moving forward," Sutton said.
The party's fine comes on top of other money struggles. Earlier this year, the GOP reported that it had about $780,000 worth of debt.
Read the agreement with the FEC:
Note: The party's attorney in the settlement with the election regulator was Michael Toner, who is a former FEC commissioner. He began representing the Republican Party on the FEC complaint just a few months after he stepped down from the commission.
