Now THAT'S campaign finance reform.

Via Political Wire:

In a historic move, the Citizens Clean Elections Commission voted Thursday to oust state Rep. David Burnell Smith from office for overspending his public campaign limits by more than $6,000. (AZ Repub., 3/25 -- I'm "Hotlining")

In an effort to be more "bloggy," uh, that's it. That's the story. Although I have dusted off an old election law textbook if anyone wants to actually talk about it.

I just thought it was a hell of a story.

Comments

[DemFromCT]

First such ouster in the US? And the last?

[Kagro X]

Probably. I don't know enough about the Arizona law to say for sure what's going on here and how well it's likely to stand up in court, but I wouldn't guess off the top of my head that judges are likely to be willing to allow political decisions to be undone like this.

But I could imagine a mechanism by which a commission might make recommendations to the legislature's ethics committee, and that such a committee would start with a strong presumption that the commission's recommendation for expulsion ought to be upheld. That might work.

Then, if the guy stood for election again and won, that'd have to be the end of it. Unless he did it again in his reelection effort, in which case the process would have to start all over again.

At which point we'd know that this system doesn't work, either.

Wow, I'm giving myself a headache.

[Ron Sales]

IT WOULD BE NICE TO PUBLISH THE EVIDENCE AND ACCOUNTING THAT IS BEING USED TO ACCUSE MR. SMITH OF THIS ALLEGED WRONGDOING. ALL THAT WE HAVE HEARD FROM THE PRESS SEEMS TO BE "POST ELECTION MUDSLINGING."