In Arizona, while they do that (for most JPs here, it is one of the more enjoyable parts of the job), they also serve as judges (small claims, low-level DUIs, evictions, many misdemeanors, orders of protection, etc.).
In that regard, a large part of the job is about paperwork - see that it is done cleanly and accurately.
And because it is an elected position, there are occasionally candidates for the job who don't seem to understand that, or at least who don't take it seriously.
Charles Boles, the Republican nominee for Justice of the Peace in the University Lakes precinct of Maricopa County (east Tempe) seems to fall into that group.
Notes: the Democratic nominee is Tyler Kissell; the district itself is almost evenly divided between Rs and Ds.
As noted in a complaint filed by Mark Thompson, a Republican former legislator and one of the candidates in the R primary won by Boles, Boles has been filing campaign finance reports that are contradictory and/or incomplete.
From the complaint -
He lists a number of issues with a number of different reports, so I chose to look at his most recent filings.
"Sloppy" doesn't even begin to describe what I found.
From Boles' most recent report ("Post Primary Report") -
As someone with a bit of an accounting background (and only a *bit* - I am not an accountant), this page is almost horrifying. On line 5b and line 7, columns A and B should have the same number. As you can see, they don't. Not even close.
From his Pre-Primary report:
Boles' response to Thompson's complaint was less than illuminating (it also didn't say anything about fixing the shortcomings in his reports; in fact, most of his response was to simply criticize Thompson's previous candidacy) -
According to reports that have reached me, Maricopa County Elections has punted on the complaint, citing lack of jurisdiction (which I find hard to believe) and lack of time (considering that early ballots go into the mail later this week, I believe this one very much).
In other words, Boles probably won't get much push back on his financial reports until after the election, at the earliest.
Of course, if he wins the election, he may see far more push back than he, as a non-sitting judge, expects - *if* he wins his race, he will then fall under the jurisdiction of the Arizona Commission on Judicial Conduct.
Arizona's judicial branch is a nationally respected one; in fact, it garners more national respect than the state's legislative and executive branches.
And the Commission is a big reason for that. It does a very effective job of keeping the few AZ judicial officers who get out of line from getting too far out of line.
And not getting the paperwork right is something that *will* get the Commission's attention.
Summary:
Boles' open disregard for the detail work of being a candidate speaks volumes about how he would do the job if he wins.
