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MN GOP PRESS RELEASE: “REPUBLICAN PARTY OF MINNESOTA REQUESTS NEW YORK STATE WORKERS’ COMP BOARD REOPEN INVESTIGATION OF ALAN FRANKEN INC.”

By Michael B. Brodkorb | April 10, 2008

St. Paul – Republican Party of Minnesota Chairman Ron Carey today wrote the State of New York’s Workers’ Compensation Board asking the Board to reopen its investigation of Alan Franken Inc. New information revealed today clearly suggests that Al Franken and his company, Alan Franken Inc., willfully and deliberately evaded New York labor laws.

Please find a copy of Chairman Carey’s letter below.

Please view enclosures here: http://www.mngop.com/pdfs/FrankenHarvard.pdf

April 10, 2008

Chairman Zachary S. Weiss

New York State Workers’ Compensation Board

20 Park Street

Albany, NY 12207

Dear Chairman Weiss:

I am writing to request that the state of New York Workers’ Compensation Board reopen its investigation of Alan Franken Inc. for deliberately and willfully evading state labor laws.

As you are aware, Alan Franken Inc. was forced to pay $25,000 by the Board for a nearly three-year failure to carry workers’ compensation insurance. When asked about Mr. Franken’s failure to carry workers’ compensation insurance for his employees, Mr. Franken’s spokesman “Andy Barr said that neither Franken nor his wife, Franni, were aware of the matter before Tuesday [March 4, 2008]. They have lived in Minneapolis for the past few years and did not know about the state’s attempts to reach them in New York City, he said.” (Star Tribune, March 4, 2008)

Yet Mr. Franken recently sent out a fundraising solicitation to Harvard alumni in a new report issued for the Class of 1973 and published in 2008. In his entry, Mr. Franken lists 90 Riverside Drive, Apt. 2G, New York, NY 10024 as his home address. Please note that this the very same address the state of New York used to send Mr. Franken over fifteen letters regarding his failure to carry workers’ compensation insurance. Mr. Franken has maintained that he did not receive any of this correspondence from the state of the New York. Enclosed please find this new information which suggests Mr. Franken was not honest with the state of New York Worker’s Compensation Board regarding this matter.

Based upon this new information, it is my strong conviction that Alan Franken Inc. was well aware of the repeated attempts by the State of New York’s Workers Compensation Board to reach Mr. Franken and demand that he comply with state labor laws.

Furthermore, it is my contention that Mr. Franken’s deliberate attempts to evade his legal responsibilities as an employer in the state of New York raise serious questions about his honesty and character.

Given that Mr. Franken continues to refuse to address this matter publicly in Minnesota, I believe it is important for the state of New York Worker’s Compensation board to consider this new evidence. Accordingly, I respectfully ask that the state of New York Workers’ Compensation Board reopen its investigation of Alan Franken Inc.

Thank you for your assistance in this matter.

Sincerely,

Ron Carey

Republican Party of Minnesota Chairman

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This post also appears on Blogs for Norm!, an online community and blog covering the 2008 U.S. Senate campaign in Minnesota. The primary goal of Blogs for Norm! is to organize bloggers who support U.S. Senator Norm Coleman.

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