'Clean Elections Monster 2: Back To The Lege'?

Or maybe 'Bad News Burnell in Breaking Training'...

From AZCentral.com:

The first lawmaker in the nation removed from office for violating a public campaign funding system will try to win back his seat in the Sept. 12 primary.

Ousted state Rep. David Burnell Smith, R-Carefree, officially filed to win back his seat as a representative of Legislative District 7, which includes Carefree, Cave Creek and parts of Phoenix and Scottsdale.

From later in the article:

Smith got into trouble during his 2004 primary election campaign for overspending Clean Elections public funds by $6,000, or more than 10 percent. That was an amount large enough to trigger a provision in state law requiring Smith's ouster.

In March 2005, the state's Clean Election Commission voted 5-0 to order Smith to leave office as well as pay a $10,000 fine and pay back $34,625 in public campaign funds.

And even further down...

"I'm a winner, not a quitter," said Smith, who plans on financing his new campaign in part with assistance from friends, and without public funds.

Hope he knows that there are rules for candidates that aren't Clean Elections candidates. If he reads this (ok, that's something other than likely, but so what? lol) here's some that he may find very pertinent:

ARS, Title 16, Chapter 6, from the Secretary of State's website:

§ 16-905. Contribution limitations*; civil penalty; complaint

A. For an election other than for a statewide office, a contributor shall not give and
an exploratory committee, a candidate or a candidate's campaign
committee shall not accept contributions of more than:

1. Three hundred dollars from an individual.

2. Three hundred dollars from a single political committee, excluding a political party, not certified under subsection I of this section to make contributions at the higher limits prescribed by paragraph 3 of this subsection and subsection B, paragraph 3
of this section.

3. One thousand five hundred ten dollars from a single political committee, excluding a political party, certified pursuant to subsection I of thissection.

Later on in the SOS's pamphlet (page 31) there is a list of updated (as of January 2005) contribution limits.

These include, for legislative offices:

• Individual limit - $296
  
  Political Committee limit - $296
  
  Super PAC - $1512
  
  Combined total from all Political Committees other than political parties -
  $7568
  
  Nominee's total from political party and all political organizations
  combined - $7568
  

In short Mr. Smith, even though you are not running as a Clean Elections candidate this time (shocking, that :) ) you still have to pay attention to the rules. So do these "friends" who will be "assisting" you.

Or you could get tossed out again, which, while very entertaining, would be another political embarrassment for Arizona (see: Mecham, Evan; Symington, Fife). An embarrassment that we don't need.

On the other hand, why worry? Marilyn Fox will knock you off if your own party doesn't do it first.

In other news, the AZRep has a story about the legislative district races in the Scottsdale area (LD7, LD8, and LD17), including the heat in the LD8 Republican primary (which the East Valley Tribune, and me :)) , had yesterday. )

On edit: Note to self - work on post formatting skills. Sheesh.