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Home Improvement With Norm And Ted

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December 15, 2008

The battle for Norm Coleman’s Senate seat, representing Minnesota, continues to drag on toward the new year.  Democratic candidate Al Franken inched closer to victory when the state Canvassing Board ruled that more than 1,600 absentee ballots were improperly rejected by local officials.  As Curt Brown reported in the December 14 Minneapolis Star Tribune:

The recount has revealed numerous missteps, some involving enough ballots to tip the balance.

There are a couple of similarities between the Senatorial election in Minnesota and the Senatorial election in Alaska.  When Alaska Senator Ted Stevens lost his bid for re-election in the 2008 Senate race, it was the count of absentee and questioned ballots that determined the outcome of that event, as reported in the November 20 Seattle Times.  More importantly, the crucial factor motivating voters in the Alaska election was also discussed in that article:

A week before the election, a jury convicted Stevens of seven felonies for lying on his financial-disclosure forms about more than $250,000 in gifts, including renovations of his Girdwood, Alaska, home.

Prior to the resolution of that race, there was a good deal of discussion concerning the likelihood that the Senate would not tolerate the membership of a convicted felon in their exclusive organization.

Meanwhile, Senator Norm Coleman is facing questions from reporters over his own home improvement scandal.  Although he is not presently facing criminal charges for any wrongdoing in this matter, the FBI has begun an investigation into the money trail left by $75,000 in campaign contributions.  On Thursday, December 11, Fox 9 of St. Paul provided this:

The FBI is now reportedly investigating the allegations that Nasser Kazeminy tried to funnel $75,000 in campaign contributions through the Senator’s wife.

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Norm Coleman’s home in St. Paul’s Crocus Hill neighborhood is not lavish — but it’s a lot nicer than it used to be, thanks in part to contractor Jim Taylors, who helped remodel the home two years ago.

“Put in a second floor master bedroom/bathroom, the bedroom was there, we just added a bathroom and closet and a kitchen remodel, actually turned into half the house remodel by the time we painted and refinished floors and did some landscape work,” says Taylors.

The remodeled kitchen was the backdrop for some of the Senator’s campaign commercials.  FOX 9 learned the woman in charge of the project was Shari Wilsey, an interior designer.  Wilsey, along with her husband Roger, are longtime friends of the Coleman’s and financial contributors to the Senator’s campaigns.

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Two lawsuits allege that in spring of 2007, Edina businessman Nasser Kazeminy began a series of $25,000 payments to Coleman from Deep Marine Technology, a company he controlled in Texas, to Hays Companies, the Minnesota Insurance company where Laurie Coleman works.

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While Coleman didn’t agree to sit down for a interview, his campaign did agree to share billing records of the remodeling project.  Original projections in 2006 estimated a cost of $328,000, but four months later, the construction cost was estimated at $414,000, over-budget by $86,000.

During that time is when, the lawsuit alleges, Kazeminy was trying to get money to Coleman.

According to the lawsuits, in March of 2007, Kazeminy said that “U.S. Senators don’t make s—” and he was going to try to find a way to get money to Coleman.

“On the one level it could just be a coincidence, on the other level this could be one of the reasons he’s getting that money from elsewhere, to try to make up for his, to be able to pay off a loan, pay off a line of credit,” says Schultz.

Records provided by the campaign show that Coleman paid Wilsey in full for the renovation — $414,000.  In part, by refinancing his home in March 2007, for $775,000.

The Senator acknowledges, that like a lot of people in America, he now owes more on his home than it’s actually worth.

What we know is this: the Senator had costly and over-budget renovations to his home at the same time a contributor was allegedly trying to funnel him money.  But he’s still criticized for walking away from reporters, while the questions aren’t going away.

It’s nice to know that we can count on a Fox news outlet for a good scandal, and if we’re lucky, it might even involve a Republican.  Although Coleman was not named as a defendant in either lawsuit, the FBI investigation into the campaign contributions could eventually give Coleman some more serious headaches.  At this point, it seems as though Coleman could document that he paid for the remodeling project by refinancing his home.  However, did the refinancing cover the entire $414,000 cost?  Even if Coleman is re-elected, could we eventually get to the point where the Senate, itself, has to consider giving him the boot?  Stay tuned.