Monday, November 9th, 2009...7:40 pm
Quelland Loses Appeal
Press release from the Jackie Thrasher campaign:
Phoenix – Administrative Law Judge Thomas Shedden has ruled that Representative Doug Quelland (R-10) should be removed from office.
Citing Quelland’s testimony as defying reason that the work done by Larry Davis and his firm, Intermedia Public Relations, was for Quelland’s now defunct coffee shop.
“The voters of District 10 are the clear winners with Judge Shedden upholding the earlier decision by the Clean Elections Commission to oust Rep. Quelland from office,” said Jackie Thrasher, a former Representative and current candidate for the House of Representatives in District 10 (Glendale/Phoenix). “Voters in District 10 were denied a fair election on November 4, 2008. The process that resulted in this decision confirms my faith in the system. It just doesn’t pay to cheat.”
Thrasher, who was a ‘clean’ candidate in the 2008 election cycle, lost her bid for re-election to Quelland by 553 votes.
Interestingly, part of Quelland’s argument is that the CCEC doesn’t have the right to remove him from office. David Burnell-Smith tried to make the same argument, but the court of appeals found that the commission can, in fact, remove an office holder.
7 Comments
November 9th, 2009 at 7:58 pm
Did he shave his mustache?
November 9th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
the 2010 election season gets started with a bang!
November 10th, 2009 at 11:42 am
“better than I deserve!”
(inside joke…some of you may get)
November 10th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Oh, yes I do! He said that daily at the legislature. It’s a biblical reference. As fallible humans we only deserve that which God gives us.
November 10th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
The problem of course is that the first court decision in the Burnell-Smith case did not prevent this one from dragging through the courts and depriving the citizens of district 10 of effective representation. Why didn’t the court immediately cite precident and throw this out as soon as it was filed?
I also believe that (unlike in any other cause) if a vacancy occurs because a candidate is determined to have obtained the seat by violating clean elections law (yes, cheating) it should not be rewarded by appointing someone else from the same party. In that case a vacancy should be declared and a special election called.
November 10th, 2009 at 8:19 pm
I agree Eli, but to replace them by requiring a special election would require a change in the law and that ain’t about to happen with this legislature.
November 10th, 2009 at 9:37 pm
Maybe not, but almost certainly Quelland will take his seat in January when the second year of the legislature starts. So you can lie and cheat your way around clean elections and as long as you are willing to keep filing appeals in court you can outlast them and serve all or nearly all of a full term anyway.