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.

Common Cause Minnesota filed a complaint on Tuesday alleging that Minnesota Majority and its executive director, Dan McGrath, broke state law by failing to properly register as a lobbying organization and disclose costs associated with seeking to influence legislation.

Political watchers waiting for a firm ruling on the months-long debate over whether the Republican Party of Minnesota is responsible for 2010 gubernatorial recount debt might still be seeking answers after a key campaign finance board meeting next week.

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.

This summer Minnesota’s campaign finance agency will make its way through a couple of pending challenges brought by a watchdog group that’s taking a number of Republican-centered causes to task.

The pair of complaints come from allegations that ALEC is involved in lobbying activities but presents itself for tax and campaign finance purposes as a charitable organization.

Even as Republicans in the Minnesota Legislature were advancing a voter ID constitutional amendment on to the November ballot last week, DFLers were predicting court challenges.

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.

Pressed in part by budget cuts that augur for a streamlining of government operations, the Department of Administration has been publicly floating a document containing around 30 proposals for a 2012 Minnesota Data Practices Act policy bill.

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