On August 6, Arizona Representative Doug Quelland filed a lawsuit in state court to retain his seat in the legislature. The Clean Elections Commission had voted 4-1 to remove him from office, back on May 15, 2009. Arizona’s public funding body is so powerful, it has the power to remove state legislators who violate the campaign finance laws. The Commission had determined that Quelland spent $15,000 to hire a campaign consultant, but didn’t acknowledge this expenditure on his campaign reports. See this story. Quelland was only the second legislator removed by the Clean Elections Commission in the ten years the Commission has existed. Quelland was elected to the legislature in 2002 and 2004, defeated in 2006, and elected in 2008. He is a Republican who has always supported Arizona’s public funding law.

The Ohio Secretary of State’s omnibus election law bill, which includes ballot access improvements for new and previously unqualified parties, has been introduced. It is HB 260, by Representatives Dan Stewart and Tracy Heard (both are Democrats from Columbus).

As noted earlier, a federal court in Washington state is considering whether the names and address of people who sign a Referendum petition, for the purpose of blocking a civil unions law from taking effect, should be considered public or private. On July 29, the judge had issued a temporary restraining order blocking the Secretary of State from releasing the names and addresses to the public.

On August 5, a group that wants to see the names and addresses of people who signed Initiative 1033 asked the Court to intervene. I-1033 advocates limits on taxes. The National Education Association wants to see who signed that petition. The Washington Coalition for Open Government supports the position that the petitions should be public. It makes an interesting analogy. If a bill were introduced in the legislature, the legislators who sponsored the bill would, of course, be identified. The analogy says that in the initiative and/or referendum process, it is particular voters who sign the petition who are sponsoring a “bill” (by analogy), and so they should be identified publicly as well.

The lawsuit is Protect Marriage Washington v Reed.