The Minnesota Republican Party Thursday says that a few pictures on DFL mailings should be worth a few thousand dollars in fines.
The Republicans alleged in complaints filed with the Minnesota campaign finance agency that the DFL Party and five of it's legislative candidates illegally coordinated independent expenditures because the photos of the five candidates appear on DFL mailings but are not publicly available.
"It"s very clear that these were not events where somebody just showed up and took a picture, that these were staged photo shoots," said Republican party chair Pat Shortridge. That suggests the candidates worked with the party on the photos, which would imply coordination.
Candidates and parties are not supposed to coordinate advertising. When they do, hefty fines can result.
The GOP asked the state campaign finance board to investigate immediately.
DFL spokeswoman Kate Monson said that the matter was being reviewed by the party's attorneys and the party would not have further comment until that review was complete.
