The state’s reputation as a vanguard in political ethics is largely dead, producing problems such as the budget impasses and shutdowns we have seen in the last few years, and which again loom larger and larger this year.

Common Cause Executive Director Mike Dean said Wednesday that he has filed a complaint with the Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH) arguing that the Republican Party, Sutton and several others created for-profit corporation Count Them All Properly (CTAP) to hide contributions directed to pay off bills related to the recount. Dean is asking OAH to find probable cause for the Ramsey County attorney to prosecute criminal charges.

n the four months since legislative maps were released, political strategists and journalists have been scrutinizing the new House and Senate districts to determine which ones favor Republicans or Democrats and where the key battlegrounds will be in 2012.

The national push to require voters to present photo identification at the polls is shaping up to be as much a windfall for lawyers in Minnesota as it has been elsewhere.

A financial report released by the Republican Party of Minnesota on Monday found that there was no theft or illegal activity by former party officers but did point to a pattern of fiscal mismanagement that has left the party about $2 million in debt.

The report is the latest salvo in a continuing effort to expose and tarnish what liberals and some Democrats see as the unseemly influence of ALEC in statehouses around the country.

Campaign Finance Board Chairman Gary Goldsmith said, per state law, he could not confirm or deny the existence of an investigation.

Minnesota's chapter of Common Cause and Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington have brought complaints over the GOP finances

Common Cause had sought to participate in the litigation and file briefs as a friend of the court.

A day after Common Cause's motion to participate in the suit, Republicans registered their own complaints, objecting to the move.