When I read the awfully innocuous title “Internal Complaints Roil State GOP Office”, I imagined reading the heartwarming story of Mark Drake complaining to Ron Carey…
“Rooooooooooooooooon, Eric stole my piggybank again!”
Just your usual Leave It To Beaver hijinks.
It was way juicier.
Keep reading for all of the scandal, bickering, and fraud that you can handle on a Monday afternoon.
The Strib article aired a couple loads of RPM dirty laundry (and conveniently enough a week before the internal Republican party leadership elections); on the tame end (!!!) the article says that former RPM Deputy Treasurer Marina Taubenberger offered a state party staffer 5,000 smackers to marry an illegal immigrant!
Something tells me that she’s not a big fan of comprehensive immigration reform.
The more politically applicable revelations start from there and the hits just keep on coming. Taubenberger clearly doesn’t have much respect for the rule of law.
“[the same party staffer] said that Taubenberger had encouraged her to mislead state revenue auditors and also encouraged her and another employee to mislead insurance auditors.”
Dwight Tostenson, former MN GOP Finance Director sent a confidential memo to members of the party detailing serious financial problems, specifically that the Republican party may have “violate federal law by repeatedly delaying the deposit of employee payroll contributions into their retirement accounts.” And why did the RPM do this? To float party expenses because they didn’t have the cash to cover them.
Ron Carey sez: “I will gladly pay you Tuesday, for a hamburger today!”
Is that all dear reader? No. Oh-no.
Tostenson goes on to say that the Republican party underreported its debts to the tune of a hundred thousand dollars, didn’t make timely payments to its vendors, and delayed payment of its staff’s expense reports.
So what does that mean?
That means that in the midst of an election cycle where they recieved a shellacking of epic proportions the Republican Party was flailing about trying to keep it’s head above financial water. And maybe the most charming aspect of this story? When Tostenson confronted Ron “Call the Lawyers… Again” Carey, his salary was slashed by 40%. Subtle right?
This is still percolating and will continue to do so until Saturday at least. Stay tuned for more about the Republican party’s vicious infighting…
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Captain Repya is stunned, stunned to to find that this story was going into the Star-Tribune.
But for what reasons? A few months ago, the Strib ran an article on Carey and his ties to the Minnesota Autism Center story. There was very little new news - but the article ran the week when the infighting in the MN GOP was picking up.
So is this the Strib reporting news? Or is this just D.J. Tice proving himself to whoever turn out to be next head of the MN GOP?
Sean,
Unlike my friends in the DFL who would be circling the wagons and accusing the GOP of dirty tricks and God knows what else if the shoe was on the other foot, I am not going to defend Carey over this. There is no excuse for this and I don’t think he is competent to serve another term.