Friday, May 1st, 2009...2:54 pm
Quelland Update
Doug Quelland has hired an attorney named Lee Miller to handle his case before the Clean Elections Commission. Miller was probably picked because he is counsel to the Arizona Republican Party, but one has to wonder about his other job: as a lobbyist for various groups with interests before the legislature, including payday lenders.
Is it just me, or does having the attorney whose job it is to keep you in the legislature also having lobbying business before your committees smell a little too much like a conflict of interest?
It may be moot. The Clean Elections Commission put off any decision on Quelland’s future for a couple of weeks. According to Mary Jo Pitzl of the Republic, the commissioners had conflicting stories that made it hard to make a decision. Isn’t that what happens all the time on these “quasi-judicial bodies”? One side says one thing, the other says something else, and people have to evaluate their stories. I hope that Pitzl’s entry was incomplete, because it doesn’t say a lot about these guys if they shirk making a decision just beacause there happens to be two sides presented. For their sake, I’ll try to reserve judgement until they reconsider the matter in two weeks.
1 Comment
May 1st, 2009 at 6:00 pm
Sounds like they just don’t want to decide. If these people were judges they would be laughed out of court if they said “It is toooo haaaard to decide – there were two sides and we can’t makes heads or tails as to whether Quelland broke the law or not”.
Perhaps they should just flip a coin.