Well, that certainly didn’t take long. NY 20th congressional Democratic candidate Scott Murphy probably hasn’t had time to stock up pens and paper clips in his new campaign office yet and his opponents are raising questions about his history of paying taxes. Apparently, one of Murphy’s early business start-ups ran afoul of the IRS around the time he was selling it off.

In the wake of recent tax flaps surrounding Obama administration nominees, Republicans are zeroing in on another Democrat with a complicated personal tax history — Scott Murphy, the nominee for Kirsten Gillibrand’s vacant House seat in New York.

Within hours of Tedisco’s nomination Sunday, the National Republican Congressional Committee blasted Murphy for his start-up company’s failure to pay $21,000 in taxes on time — a charge with added resonance in light of the tax troubles of recent Obama administration appointees.

Murphy claims that the tax liens are not his problem, but that of the company who took over Small World Software when he sold it. An investigation by Politico, however, seems to indicate otherwise.

But according to copies of tax documents provided to Politico, two of the tax liens (totaling $744) were issued prior to the company’s merger with IXL Inc. in January 1998. And the third lien for unpaid sales tax, which totaled $20,800, covered a time period when the company was under Murphy’s management.

The $20,800 lien was paid off five months late in December 1999, but the two smaller liens are still due.

There was a time when something like this might never have made it on to our radar, but in the wake of investigations into various Obama cabinet appointments the issue carries a tone which takes things to another level. Vetting is growing into a full time business, and it happens at the speed of light. Both parties will need to exercise more care in the future when selecting their candidates.

All of this comes at a time when an internal poll shows Tedisco with a 53-25 lead among likely voters in the special election and Murphy’s name recognition registers somewhere in the teens. If the Murphy campaign isn’t careful, the Republicans will get out in front of these stories and define Murphy for the voters before he gets a chance to define himself.