Arizona’s public funding law for candidates for state office provides that a candidate who accepts public funding, and then breaks the law on a matter involving campaign spending, risks being ousted from public office. On November 9, an Administrative Law Judge upheld the recommendation of the commission that runs the public funding law, and ruled that State Representative Doug Quelland should lose his seat in the legislature. See this story.

The legislator, Doug Quelland, had taken public funding in 2008, but then appears to have spent additional private campaign funds on his campaign secretly. His attorney says Quelland will now file a lawsuit to retain his seat. Assuming Quelland is eventually ousted, he will be the second state legislator in Arizona to have been ousted.