State GOP revises scores of finance reports

Responding to federal inquiries into its financial records, the Republican Party of Minnesota recently adjusted scores of campaign finance reports from several years to correct overstated claims on how much cash it had available to spend and other problems.

The party filed 60 amended reports in the past two weeks with the Federal Election Commission revising statements it submitted since 2002, when Congress passed tougher campaign finance restrictions.

In some of the earlier reports, the party had overstated its cash balances by at least hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Minnesota GOP treasurer Tony Sutton said Friday that the problems stemmed from a series of "clerical" errors made by a former controller. Similarly, former FEC Chairman Michael Toner, who is now advising the Minnesota GOP on its financial reporting, said Friday that the discrepancies were "inadvertent and technical in nature."

But Hamline University law and political science Prof. David Schultz was not so sure. "All these amended reports suggest either a concerted effort to hide something or a consistent pattern of bad accounting and fiscal management," he said.

In response to other FEC inquiries, the Minnesota DFL Party also has amended some of its reports to the agency over the years.

But nothing like the volume amended by the state GOP since May 8. The DFL also addressed most of its problems more quickly.

Since December 2006, the FEC has sent numerous letters to the state party citing a variety of problems with its reports, questioning math errors and transfers of funds, among other issues. The party repeatedly missed deadlines to fully correct its reports.

An FEC spokesman in Washington declined to comment Friday on the significance of the problems. The agency will review this month's submissions to determine whether they answer questions raised in the inquiries.

Greatly complicated rules

The GOP's amended reports included one submitted Wednesday that revised both an original 2006 year-end report and an earlier amended version of that same report. The original report showed more than $136,000 in cash on hand at the close of the reporting period, and more than $128,000 in debt or obligations. It was first amended in 2007 to show nearly $2.8 million in cash on hand and the same debts or obligations. The amended version submitted Wednesday showed a minus $28,000 in cash on hand, and debts or obligations of more than $213,000.

A similar pattern emerged involving a 2005 year-end report and amendments to it filed in 2006 and May 13.

"Our controller was under the impression that she was supposed to report both federal and state [cash on hand] and she wasn't," he said.

Former controller Marina Taubenberger confirmed that she had believed she should report both state and federal money to the FEC and that she always tried to be as thorough as possible in filing reports. "We overreported," she said. "We reported every income and every expense."

Taubenberger, who left the party position in 2007, said Friday she did so because she was tired of the job. "They never asked me to leave," she said of party leaders. "I didn't do anything wrong."

Her departure came amid complaints by some party activists that the state GOP misused employee retirement money, improperly reported its finances and retaliated against staffers who reported the problems.

Schultz said it is hard to determine why the earlier reported cash balances were too large.

Toner said the congressional restrictions, part of McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law, greatly complicated reporting rules for state parties by requiring them to follow state laws for some data and federal law for others.

"I haven't seen any indication thus far that there was any knowing and willful effort to distort those figures, but instead they were just bookkeeping problems," he said. After filing another 15 amended reports next week, the state GOP will "work actively and collaboratively with the FEC to address any remaining issues," he said.