Dead men tell no tales. They also collect no pay.
That's a problem for the Minnesota House DFL Caucus' federal campaign arm. Since at least 2003, the federal group has carried $56,025.62 in debt to the Benjamin Group of Madison, Wisconsin, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Rep. Steve Simon, the treasurer of the federal campaign finance group and a DFL House member from Hopkins, says the caucus would be happy to pay it off.
But...
"The company is no more. The owner is no more," Simon said. "Yet the FEC won't let us take it off the books."
The Benjamin Group is long out of business, Simon says, and, "Mr. Benjamin died." There is no successor group to which the DFL can pay the $56,000, he said.
The solution, derived from legal advice and the FEC? The DFL just has to report the debt cycle after cycle forever and ever.
