Does anyone remember Jeff Larson? I do. He and Norm Coleman are close friends. He runs a political consulting firm, FLSConnect. FLS did about $1.5 million in business with former Senator Norm Coleman's campaigns. He was Norm's landlord in DC and gave him a below market, sweetheart deal on an apartment. He was also Sarah Palin's personal shopper. He bought her wardrobe after she became the VP pick for John McCain.
A prominent Republican consultant has launched a new political organization aimed at helping "pro-business candidates" in Minnesota.
Jeff Larson of the political consulting firm FLS Connect said Wednesday his "Minnesota Future" fund registered with the IRS is gearing up. The 527 group -- named for a section in the tax law -- is exempt from limits on campaign fundraising and spending that apply to party-affiliated groups.
(WCCO)
Larson never did answer the question of who paid Norm's utility bills for his below-market apartment.
Aside from being former senator Norm Coleman's buddy, Jeff Larson also runs a very successful communications and fundraising company, FLS Connect. Norm's campaign and Senate office contracted FLS Connect for upwards of $1.5 million worth of work. Larson is also slightly famous for helping outfit Sarah Palin for her appearances at St. Paul's Republican National Convention in 2008.
Larson has not been immune to controversy.
Larson gave his little buddy Norm a sweetheart apartment deal in Washington, DC. The rates were well below market prices and he even allowed Norm to skip rent payments and even pay with furniture that then remained on the property, probably for Norm to use.
His latest controversy is the equivalent of being posed the question when did you stop beating your wife?
An Arizona man who spent 10 months working as a telephone solicitor for a Minnesota-based Republican fundraising firm claims that the company regularly hires convicted felons who have unrestricted access to political donors' credit card numbers.
Minnesota political consultant Jeff Larson - a founding partner in the company, FLS Connect, which has offices in St. Paul and Phoenix - vehemently denied that any ex-convicts working at FLS have access to credit card information.
(St. Paul Legal Ledger's Capitol Report)
The Republican National Committee, the organization that Michael Steele embarrasses on an almost daily basis, is being sued for breach of contract. They failed to pay a contractor who helped with the RNC08 in St. Paul, MN.
In a complaint filed in January 2009 [PDF, 3 Dog Consulting, Ltd., alleges that it was not paid roughly $760,000 for fundraising services it did for the Minneapolis/St. Paul 2008 Host Committee, the non-profit group tasked with overseeing the convention.
(Huffington Post)
Oh, really? Gosh. I knew the Republicans weren't doing so well fundraising, but ...
On the surface, the dispute appears to be more a business matter than political. The committee has more than $5.4 million cash on hand, with slightly more than $1 million in debts owed, according to FEC reports. It could, if it wanted, pay off the money for which it is being sued.
(Huffington Post)
So they've got the money, but are just too cheap? The Minnesotan getting stiffed in the deal is Jeff Larson, good friend, confidant and former landlord of former Senator Norm Coleman. Too bad Norm doesn't have any sway with these people.
210 days ago, on August 4th, 2008, Team Coleman Spokesman Mark Drake took the podium at a press conference at the Capitol. Drake claimed Coleman has been "open" and "transparent" with regards to RentGate and UtilityBill. Further, Mark Drake promised, under questioning, to check with the campaign about allowing members of the media to see an actual utility bill, so members of the media could verify who's name the utility bills are in and that Coleman was paying what he should be and not violating the Gift Ban.
210 days later, said utility bills have yet to be produced.
And it seems the media has lost interest. Which, of course, demonstrates once again exactly why GOPers lie to the media:
As much as Senator Coleman would like you to believe the recent allegations concerning potentially illegal payments funneled to his wife are "a vicious 11th hour attack", the record simply does not bear that out. Questions regarding Senator Coleman's complicated financial arrangements with financial backers go back at least to June, when Edward Pound of the National Journal first broke the story of Coleman's unusual rental arrangements.
From that story:
Earlier this month, after National Journal questioned Coleman and Larson about the living arrangement, the senator said he discovered that his rent for last November and January had not been paid. In mid-June, Coleman covered the back rent with a personal check for $1,200 made out to Larson and signed by the senator's wife. Last year, Coleman sold furniture to Larson to cover one month's rent, according to Larson. And Larson held on to yet another month's rent check for three months, cashing it a few days after NJ's inquiries.(National Journal)
After this story broke, Senator Coleman produced a "lease" for the rental premises, dated after details of the "between friends" - Norm Coleman and Jeff Larson of FLS fame - agreement became known.
Sill unanswered after these revelations are the arrangements concerning utilities for the Senator's rental unit. What is known is the unit Coleman rents is a legally licensed separate rental unit, with separated utility meters. On August 4th, at a press conference, Coleman spokesperson Mark Drake promised to check with the campaign about allowing members of the media to see an actual utility bill, so members of the media could verify Senator Coleman was paying what he should be and not violating the Gift Ban - let alone having a corporation picking up his tab.
To date, said utility bills have not been produced. Indeed, just yesterday, with Mark Drake at the podium, Team Coleman stonewalled reporters again. Here's the transcript, beginning at the 15:24 mark:
REPORTER: Mark we know that Senator Coleman pays $600 a month in rent, right?
Mark Drake: (right.)
REPORTER: We still don't haven't had an answer on utility bills, and we asked a few months ago if you could produce those to see how much he's really paying - do you have an answer for us now?
Mark Drake: You know, this has all been dealt with months ago.
REPORTER: No, it hasn't been. We haven't seen a utility bill yet and it would be good to see those.
Keep that in mind, regarding the utility bill issue. Now, let's look at a press conference from October 8th, where both the utility bill and Lori Coleman's employment were brought up:
REPORTER: On a different subject is there a reason that the Senator won't say whether or not someone else bought some suits for him.
CULLEN SHEEHAN: Rachel, the Senator has reported every gift he has ever received.
REPORTER: That wasn't my question, Cullen.
CULLEN SHEEHAN: The Senator has reported every gift he has ever received. We are not going to respond to unnamed sources on a blog.
REPORTER: So Senator Coleman's friend has not bought these suits for him? Is that correct?
CULLEN SHEEHAN: The Senator has reported every gift he has ever received.
REPORTER: Why would say that? Why wouldn't you give us an answer yes or no on that?
CULLEN SHEEHAN: The Senator has recorded every gift he has ever received.
REPORTER: We haven't asked whether he has recorded every gift he has ever received and I will take his word that he has recorded every gift he has received. Has he ever received a gift of suits?
CULLEN SHEEHAN: The Senator has reported every gift he has ever received.
REPORTER: If the answer is no, then why don't you say no.
CULLEN SHEEHAN: He has reported every gift he has ever received, Rachel.
TwoPuttTommy: Cullen, who's name is on Senator Coleman's utility bill in D.C.?"
CULLEN SHEEHAN: Are there any more questions from the Capital Press Corps?
REPORTER: What about Laurie, Mrs. Coleman's job at Hays Company? Do you know what she did there?
CULLEN SHEEHAN: Again they have disclosed everything they need to disclose on the Senate ethics forms.
REPORTER: So the Senator will only go according to the Senate ethics laws or rules rather than answer questions?
CULLEN SHEEHAN: He has done everything that he is required to do, Rachel.
REPORTER: That is not my question, Cullen.
CULLEN SHEEHAN: But that is my response.
REPORTER: Senator Coleman has talked a lot about campaign finance and transparency. He'll repeat that transparency - transparency - that's what you need to have. If there are questions about whether he was a recipient of some very expensive suits and whether those they were gifted to him in an appropriate way - why not just clear it all up because it is very unclear to us?
CULLEN SHEEHAN: He does that every year as a United States Senator on his Senate disclosure forms.
REPORTER: And will we find information about clothing on those forms?
CULLEN SHEEHAN: If it exceeds a gift limit, yes.
REPORTER: So is it possible that he received these suits and it was below gift level.
CULLEN SHEEHAN: The Senator has reported every gift he has ever received.
REPORTER: It is a little puzzling Cullen why you won't say whether or not he received these gifts and I understand that you don't have respond to everything on the blogs but you are getting questions from reporters and I don't see why you aren't answering them. Can you explain that a little to me?
CULLEN SHEEHAN: Rachel, we are not going to respond to unnamed sources on blogs. That is what we are going to do from now until election is over. The Senator has disclosed everything that he is required to disclose and recorded everything that he is required to record.
REPORTER: But Cullen if the Senator did nothing wrong here and that is what you are saying then just tell us that and the issue will go away.
CULLEN SHEEHAN: The Senator has reported every gift he has ever received.
REPORTER: Did the Senator done something wrong here?
CULLEN SHEEHAN: The Senator has done nothing wrong and reported every gift he has ever received.
REPORTER: And you don't know what Mrs. Coleman did for Hays Companies?
CULLEN SHEEHAN: And again whatever has been required to be disclosed about her income and what she does has been disclosed.
Apparently, by the recent cour filings, everything that has been required to be disclosed about 'her" - Lori Coleman - has NOT been disclosed.
And clearly, the revelations alleged in the Texas court filings are NOT "a vicious 11th hour attack"; they are issues the Coleman campaign could have/should have gotten in front of, if the allegations were baseless, months ago. But they didn't. Where there's smoke, there's often fire. Especially when left smoldering.
This story is not "an 11th hour attack" - this is a story that, after 4 months is coming to a boil; it very well could be embers combusting into fire. If it's "11th hour", that's only because allegations have gone unsatisfactorily addressed - for months if not more.
And still unanswered is who's name is on the utility bill for the apartment Norm Coleman rents, from a well-connected campaign operative. This is another story that Team Coleman has left unexplained - and after many months, those paying attention are connecting the dots.
Sarah Palin's folksy authenticity must have been touted by Republican operatives at least once for every dollar the RNC has spent on her clothes, hair, and makeup over the past six weeks. (That's 150,000 times/dollars, for those of you who spent today in a cave.)
But it turns out the Republicans didn't trust Palin to dress herself for the big time. No, her Saks Fifth Avenue, Barneys, and Neiman Marcus clothes were purchased by one Jeff Larson.
Does the name Jeff Larson sound familiar? It should. Larson is the Karl Rove protégé who's a principal in the robocalling firm of FLS Connect (the "FLS" stands for Tony Feather, Jeff Larson, and Tom Syndhorst, all veteran Republican political operatives). Larson's firm is the same one that launched the scurrilous robocalls against John McCain in 2000, and that McCain has now hired to make robocalls connecting Barack Obama to Bill Ayers. He's also well known in Minnesota for leasing his basement apartment at a steeply discounted rate to embattled Republican Senator Norm Coleman. Evidently, Larson also has quite the eye for women's fashion. Even hateful liberals would have to admit that Palin dresses awfully nicely.
And in a stunning coincidence, $75,000 of the clothes for Palin were purchased by Larson at the very same Neiman Marcus where Republican donor Nasser Kazeminy allegedly bought suits for...Norm Coleman. I foresee an ad for that store: "The choice for Republican operatives seeking to outfit up-and-coming politicians who can't dress themselves."
I don't know which is worse, the blatant and invasive corruption or the stunning incompetence of the modern Republican Party and its leaders.
Norm Coleman's sweetheart living arrangement in Washington may not just be sleazy, slimy, and otherwise unethical: it may violate the congressional gift ban.
It turns out that since Coleman is paying below market rate for his posh bachelor pad near Capitol Hill (owned by K Street fixer and Coleman confidant Jeff Larson), there's little chance that he's actually paying his utility bills -- which would violate the ban.
As yesterday's Huffington Post piece notes, this would otherwise be a small fish in a very big pond of issues -- but it's the Coleman campaign and its political pearl-clutchers that have slammed Al Franken for past tax issues in several states -- it smacks of the pot calling the kettle black.
The issue may seem like a small fish in an otherwise big electoral pond. But questions surrounding living arrangements have already played a significant role in the Minnesota Senate race. Franken himself was attacked for, and politically hurt by, revelations that he had not paid taxes in states in which he performed as a comedian (he had paid higher fees to his state of residence, but he is still charged with not being completely forthcoming).
As for Coleman, the optics of having a big-time GOP insider, in effect, providing roughly a few thousand dollars a month in free cable, electricity, and Internet could prove equally problematic. On a more serious level, a utilities subsidy may present an ethics violation.
"This is a legitimate question to be asking in light of the fact that he is apparently renting from someone with an interest in his official actions as a senator," said Mary Boyle of the good government group Common Cause. "It would be one thing if he was paying above market value and they could argue that it is included in his rent. But he is paying below market for this apartment. At a minimum [not paying utilities] would be a violation of the congressional gift ban. Certainly under no way is it okay for a member of Congress to be taking free or subsidized rent or benefits from anyone, particularly from someone you are working with."
Reaction from Coleman suggests that he too finds the utilities issue troubling. The Huffington Post placed more than two-dozen calls to his campaign spokesperson and Senate office over the course of several weeks. Despite leaving more than ten voice and email messages including the basic request to discuss the utilities bill, not one aide ever returned a request for comment. The Minnesota Democrat Party has, likewise, asked Coleman to provide a bill from the utility company Pepco to put the issue to rest. The Senator has not complied.
The whole piece is worth a read, including Coleman's questionable conduct in securing a place for Larson on the Republican National Convention Host Committee and other sleazy-looking details. The point here is this: how proper is it for a sitting U.S. Senator to have such a cozy arrangement, especially with a K Street type like Larson, and how proper is it for that Senator to attack his opponent for issues he himself seems to have?
I am surprised about how little attention there has been to the impending special election to fill the term of Senator Dan Larson who is resigning to take on a new job.
So far I have only heard of one, DFL and Neighborhood activist Jennifer Gisslen Lee, who has set-up a Facebook page and is having an initial campaign meeting tomorrow.
Without addressing the continuing scandal surrounding his sweetheart rental arrangement in Washington D.C., Norm Coleman's reelection campaign has taken time this week to attack DFL opponent Al Franken -- twice! -- about petroleum-related issues.
Curious that the campaign and its bosses in DC would think this is a good tack to take -- since federal oil policy is set by the White House, does Team Coleman really want to put itself in line to be bound inextricably to George W. Bush's eight-year failure on energy issues?
Meanwhile, DFL Chair Brian Melendez was taking time to ask some serious questions about Coleman's rental deal with Republican political professional Jeff Larson:
"Senator Coleman, can you prove that you are paying fair market value? What research are you using to back up your claim that you are?"
"Coleman's claim that he has access only to his bedroom is simply not credible. In yesterday's National Journal article, Senator Coleman admitted again that he 'shares' the 'living space' with an office - namely the office of FLS-Connect, Jeff Larson's company. And we know from the real-estate listing not only that Coleman's bedroom is 'airy,' but that the basement includes many amenities that Coleman refuses to acknowledge.
"Are we to believe that when Coleman is in the apartment long after the FLS-Connect employee has left, he does not enjoy full use of the rest of the apartment? Why won't Senator Coleman admit that he has full access to the entire apartment?"
Is Senator Coleman paying his share of the utilities and, if so, can he prove it with a bill from Pepco [the utility company], or proof of payment to Pepco? If he is not paying his share, who is paying it for him - and would that subsidy constitute yet another ethics violation?"
...
"Why hasn't Senator Coleman produced a copy of his lease with Jeff Larson, along with any other related written documentation?"
"Senator Coleman, is it fair, when so many Minnesotans are worried about keeping their homes, are facing foreclosure or have been foreclosed on, that you get a cut-rate sweetheart deal from Jeff Larson, one of the most well-connected political operatives in America?"
To say nothing of Coleman's incredible persuasive ability to pay a month's rent with furniture that he then gets to use indefinitely in the space he's renting. I wish I could have pulled that one off in college.
It's a matter of ethics in government, and this one simply does not pass the smell test.
Now it's a wait-and-see game over the holiday weekend with Senator Barbara Boxer, D-CA, and the rest of the Senate Select Committee on Ethics to see if they decide to investigate this matter.
The Republican Party of Minnesota must be feeling desperate to immediately publish every scrap of opposition research it thinks it has on Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington in response to CREW's ethics complaint against Sen. Norm Coleman for a sweetheart rental deal in Washington D.C.
Of course, if you read just a shade below the surface, you'll realize that what the GOP isn't saying is as (if not more) important as what they do say: nowhere in that hilarious opposition research dump does the Republican Party of Minnesota deny, refute, or even seek to challenge the veracity of the allegations CREW filed a complaint to investigate.
Raise your hand if you too see that as an admission that they're true. Also raise your hand if you noticed the repeated efforts to spin it as a bipartisan scandal.
Nice try guys. The media isn't biting this time. They're actually going to cover this, because this is a real and serious issue with the way Norm Coleman conducts the business of representing Minnesota in Washington D.C.
The Senate gifts rule generally prohibits members and staff from accepting gifts, but has two exceptions under which they may accept lodging: if based on personal friendship or, as long as the giver is not a lobbyist or foreign agent, if the gift constitutes personal hospitality. Because the relationship between Sen. Coleman and Mr. Larson appears to be more business than personal, the gift would not be permitted under the "personal friendship" exception. Because Mr. Larson does not live in the townhouse, but rents it out to others, he is not hosting Sen. Coleman and "the personal hospitality" exception would not apply.
CREW is asking the Senate Ethics Committee to look into whether or not Sen. Coleman is paying fair market value for the apartment, whether Sen. Coleman would have paid the November 2007 and January 2008 rent had National Journal not raised the non-payment as an issue, whether Sen. Coleman and Mr. Larson had agreed that Mr. Larson would not cash the March 2008 rent check, why Sen. Coleman suddenly made up his back rent after National Journal asked questions about it, and why Sen. Coleman's office announced that Ms. Kainz would be leaving the senator's employ after National Journal asked about her role.
CREW's executive director Melanie Sloan stated, "Few Americans have landlords who sometimes fail to cash their rent checks, ignore unpaid rent, or accept furniture in lieu of rent. That Sen. Coleman has just such a landlord, who also happens to financially benefit from his relationship with the senator creates exactly the sort of appearance of impropriety that undermines the public's faith in government." Sloan continued, "Senators must abide by the ethics rules at all times, not just when they get caught flouting them."
No word yet on whether this means an inquiry by the Ethics Committee. Either way, it looks like that bad week I predicted on Sunday is about to get pretty darned crappy for Norm Coleman.
Oh, and raise your hand if you saw the GOP's "It's not so bad because see? A LIBRUL DEMOCRAT DID IT TOO TWENTY YEARS AGO OMG LOLLERSK4T3S!!" spin. What I get from Brodkorb's eloquent rhetoric here is the Republican Party admitting (through its loyal mouthpiece, as always) that Coleman has done some very bad things, but if they can make it a bipartisan bad thing, it's not quite as bad.
All snark aside, there's an important issue here that we could be addressing: is it better to be represented by a rich man who may not be from the salt of the earth crowd, but doesn't need the help of political consultants to afford a place to crash in D.C., or a poor man who takes sweetheart deals like these for who-knows-what in return?
Let's lay it out on the table: Al Franken came from humble beginnings in St. Louis Park, but has made quite a name and quite a bit of bank for himself in the process. Norm Coleman went into a not-as-profitable legal practice, later became Mayor of St. Paul (which, if I remember correctly, isn't exactly lucrative) and then became a U.S. Senator. It's sad when $160,000 or so isn't that much money, but there it is -- he does have a house here in Minnesota, and he does have to stay somewhere in Washington. The expenses add up. But so do the IOUs and favors that will eventually and inevitably be called in.
So which is better? The dollar-rich but IOU-poor entertainer looking to make a difference in the world, or the guy who increasingly looks like he's bought and paid for by the men who helped get him where he is today...
And their furniture. I wonder how many months of rent that chaise lounge could buy on the open market...
As much attention as the Laurie Coleman "I'm a true family man, see?" ad got, the National Journal story is so much worse. As bad as Adgate was in terms of giving a false image of Coleman's personal life, the pieces of the NJ story present potential violations of the spirit, if not the letter, of the law.
Let's review:
K-Street Fixer provides lodging Senator lodging for what has to be less than fair market value.
Senator misses a few payments, but it's okay, because K-Street Fixer/Landlord is cool with it.
Senator pays K-Street Fixer/Landlord for missed rent after National Journal asks about it.
Senator also pays K-Street Fixer/Landlord for at least one month's rent in furniture. This may be because Senator does not currently indicate ownership of a checking account, which leads Senator's wife to write rent checks for him. But seriously? Furniture?
Senator also pays K-Street Fixer/Landlord's wife for constituent casework under her maiden name.
Senator pays K-Street Fixer/Landlord's consulting firm more than a million dollars over the course of his first term for campaign-related work.
K-Street Fixer/Landlord's close associates donate to Senator's campaign, money which ends up, in part, back in K-Street Fixer/Landlord's pocket for Lobbyist/Landlord's political consulting work for Senator.
How can there not be some kind of official inquiry into these questionable relationships coming, and soon? Was Dorene Kainz qualified to do constituent casework for Minnesotans due to her work as a homemaker from Wisconsin (according to her stated profession on numerous donations to Republican candidates including one Coleman, Norm (R)? Maybe she had plenty of experience in constituent services earlier in her career and then quit to become a homemaker, and that'd be fine. But she's still the wife of a Washington political operator with some seriously questionable business interactions with a sitting United States Senator. It begs an inquiry, at very least.
As with so many stories in this election cycle, the local media bears watching as well: when the National Journal story broke, the Pioneer Press had a story up quickly, but where was the Star-Tribune? Right now, the Strib's most recent website headline that mentions Coleman is about the most recent poll showing Barack Obama and Coleman ahead in their respective races. That's all well and good, it's just stale like old bread. If a story about a potentially really bad situation for a sitting U.S. Senator is good enough for the rest of the traditional media in the Twin Cities (such as it is) is it not good enough, newsworthy enough for the Star-Tribune?
So it's going to be a bad week for Coleman -- mark my words. But it should be a bad week for the Star-Tribune leadership as well: for a newspaper that's supposed to be the leading source of news in the Twin Cities, it sure seems like they're dropping the ball at Strib HQ when it comes to determining what constitutes "important news."
I do like the Gardening section, though. Good info in there. Timely. Important.
**Update**: Changed "Lobbyist" to "K-Street Fixer, since, as an eagle-eyed reader noticed, Larson is not a federally registered lobbyist.
The National Journal is taking a look at the increasingly tight appearance of the relationship between Norm Coleman and his lobbyists.
Those lobbyists are the ones that run his campaign and are tight with the brutal military regime in Myanmar.
Good stuff - check it out:
Most curiously, Larson provides Coleman with a place to live in Washington. In July 2007, Coleman began paying Larson $600 a month in rent for a portion of a one-bedroom basement apartment in a Capitol Hill town house that Larson owns. The way Coleman explained the arrangement, the apartment serves as a crash pad. The 58-year-old senator sleeps in a bed shoehorned into a 10-by-10 bedroom, and he said he spends perhaps only "three waking hours a night" in the place.
Earlier this month, after National Journal questioned Coleman and Larson about the living arrangement, the senator said he discovered that his rent for last November and January had not been paid. In mid-June, Coleman covered the back rent with a personal check for $1,200 made out to Larson and signed by the senator's wife. Last year, Coleman sold furniture to Larson to cover one month's rent, according to Larson. And Larson held on to yet another month's rent check for three months, cashing it a few days after NJ's inquiries.
Larson's St. Paul-based company, FLS Connect, is a critical component of Coleman's political operation. The firm, which has raised money and hustled up voters for Coleman, has been paid about $1.6 million since mid-2001 by Coleman's Northstar Leadership political action committee and two Senate campaigns, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. Larson serves as the PAC's treasurer and provides it with office space in St. Paul; Coleman's Senate campaign stopped renting space from Larson last year.
Larson is the L in FLS, which is still closely linked to the disgraced lobbying firm DCI, which also had some funny little links to the campaign of presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain.
But this is more than just the same old culture of corruption we've come to expect from the modern Republican Party -- Norm Coleman is paying rent with furniture, his wife is writing his checks (since Coleman himself doesn't appear to have listed a checking account on his personal financial disclosure), and the 10x10 D.C. bachelor pad he's renting is owned by the same lobbyist who he pays for political consulting and whose colleagues donate to Coleman's campaign....it's a dizzying array of disingenuous conduct.
Is it a campaign issue, per se? Only if you believe that Washington lobbyists have a bit too much influence already with our elected leaders. One need only look as far as the debacle of a FISA bill that's making its way through the Senate to understand how powerful the lobbyists who control the easy money in Washington really are.
Add Larson and the rest of his FLS/DCI buddies to the list of people Norm Coleman would do well to remove from his company.
Does anyone remember Jeff Larson? I do. He and Norm Coleman are close friends. He runs a political consulting firm, FLSConnect. FLS did about $1.5 million in business with former Senator Norm Coleman's campaigns. He was Norm's landlord in DC and gave him a below market, sweetheart deal on an apartment. He was also Sarah Palin's 
