Did Republicans Fund MN Green Party Senate Candidate in 2002?

From a comment on TPM Muckraker:

The third issue is much less direct -- it was about Rove pushing money through Norm Coleman's campaign in 2002 to support the Green Party Native American Candidate in the Wellstone-Coleman race in 2002. (The Greens ultimately settled this by defeating their own candidate in the September 2002 primary). But it was hot news in the summer of 2002 that Rove was spending money through Coleman to support someone who might fool progressives, and take votes away from Wellstone. At the time it was a big issue, Heffelfinger did comment that he might investigate the matter of Coleman's campaign funds being used for two candidates and two parties -- but it never went beyond that. Again, that probably alienated Rove who was shoveling in the campaign cash.

Really!!!???!!!

I never heard that Republicans were funding Ed "Eagle Man" McGaa or that Tom Heffelfinger said anything about it... but, it would make sense in light of what was revealed during the Zimmermann trial.

For me and other former Greens, Ed McGaa's endorsement was when we realized that something was terribly wrong with the MN Green Party:

But my dissatisfaction with the Greens grew. The watershed moment, in retrospect, was the Green Party convention in 2002 where the party nominated Ed McGaa when clearly he had no credentials as a Green Party member or a Senate candidate. We know how that story turned out. The Green's gubernatorial candidate, Ken Pentel, had to publicly pull his support from McGaa when the truth came out about McGaa's "green" philosophy, which included burying toxic sludge on his home reservation for a price.

... and Zimmermann supported McGaa...

But Dean Zimmermann, 6th Ward Minneapolis City Council member and a Green Party member, said that Wellstone is responsible for collecting his votes, not the Green Party.

"They can't take votes away from (Wellstone) ... They're not his votes," Zimmermann said.

So, were the Republicans paying MN Green Party candidates back in 2002? It wouldn't surprise me... here's a few examples from that era of Republicans shoveling money at Green Party candidates:

Republican Offers $100K Bribe to NM Greens - Was It Tom Delay?

Green Party Candidate Finds He's a Republican Pawn