Ray Barnes - not really learning the lesson

...and believe it or not, this one isn't about his misogynistic stereotyping and spouting at an air quality meeting (ably covered by Tedski at R-Cubed).

Nope, this one is about the AZGOP's "do as we say, not as we do" school of political finger-pointing.

A couple of months ago, the AZGOP started calling for an investigation of a couple of Democratic officeholders (specifically AZAG Terry Goddard and LD15 State Rep. Kyrsten Sinema) for expressing interest in a higher office while still holding their current offices, hence violating the state's "resign-to-run" law.

All the while, the AZGOP blithely ignored two of their own, State Sen. John Huppenthal and State Rep. Ray Barnes, who were doing a *lot* more than simply expressing interest.

Huppenthal is collecting nominating signatures under the guise of "exploring" a run at State Superintendant of Public Instruction while Barnes didn't even bother with the "exploring" sham when he formed a committee for his run at the LD7 State Senate seat (he's termed out in the House).

People far and wide, and not just Democrats, pointed out the shameless hypocrisy of the GOP.

However, today there is some evidence that Barnes may have understood their point.

Or not.

His Senate committee (for LD7), filer ID 201000055, was formed on February 11, 2009, with one George Garbell listed as committee chair and one Walter Dudley listed as treasurer.

However, on Tuesday, October 20, he formed an exploratory committee for the LD7 senate seat (filer ID 201000276) with one Howard Sprague as chair and Dudley again serving as treasurer.

Sounds good, at least in a "window dressing" sort of way, doesn't it?

It does, except for one thing -

The regular committee is still active, meaning that he is now pursuing the same office twice while he still holds another office.


On the other hand, he is a Republican in an Arizona that has a Republican Secretary of State - he could have already turned in sigs and qualified for the ballot and the SOS would opine that he still hadn't started "actively" campaigning for the office.

File it under "IOKIYAR."