Citizens Clean Elections Commission (CCEC) investigator Gene Lemon has advised Rep. David Burnell Smith, R-7, and his attorney that Mr. Lemon believes Mr. Burnell Smith has broken Clean Elections spending law and should forfeit his House seat.

Mr. Lemon said he will recommend that the CCEC order Mr. Burnell Smith to resign, fine him $10,000, and require him to repay clean elections from his personal funds. Mr. Miller told Arizona Capitol Times March 7 that he expects to meet with Mr. Lemon this week. “We sent over a whole stack of accounting records,” Mr. Miller said. “Mr. Lemon has gone though those records and come to the conclusions outlined in his letter. He’s saying, ‘Here’s my analysis, tell me why I’m wrong and I will consider your alternative views, but here’s how I look at the records and the conclusions I draw.’ We have a different view of the accounting records; we have asked Mr. Lemon for a meeting soon to present our accountant’s analysis of the spending, and we’re hopeful that we’ll be persuasive that some of the aggregating that Mr. Lemon has done is in fact inaccurate and doesn’t generate the results he says it does.”

The law cited is ARS 16-941.A, which imposes spending and contribution limits.

The commission began looking into Mr. Smith’s finances after receiving a complaint from a former opponent, Thom Von Hapsburg, who ran against Mr. Smith in the House District 7 Republican primary.