Andrew Thomas, Maricopa County's top prosecutor, burnishes his . . . Wikipedia page?

Flatt just happens to be a paid lobbyist for one of the companies.

When I reached Flatt last week to discuss the matter, she confirmed that she's a lobbyist for American Traffic Solutions and that she does public relations for them, too. But the 100-word limit for Plugged In makes it difficult to fit in disclosures, she says, and so she opted against it.

"Everybody knows my client list," Flatt told me. "I didn't even think about it."

Well, not exactly everybody. I'd warrant that few Republic readers had any inkling that Flatt is on the photo-enforcement payroll. In fact, though Flatt told me that the Republic editors were well aware of her conflict, Viewpoints editor Joe Garcia says just the opposite.

"[H]ad I known one of Joanie's clients was linked to the topic of this specific blog, I would have asked her to disclose that fact in print," he wrote in an e-mail. "We've since talked and, in the interest of full disclosure, Joanie has agreed to do so in the future, as she has done in some other past blogs."

I don't think that's good enough. For one thing, this wasn't just one blog post among many: Flatt confirms that the item never ran online. Instead, she submitted it specifically for the Sunday Republic. For another, as Flatt confirms, she's also hosted fundraisers for Governor Napolitano in the past. Flatt wasn't just pushing a proposal she has a financial interest in; she was praising a politician who may well have listened to her push it in the first place.

The moral of the story? If the Republic really wants Plugged In to feature contributors from all walks of life, as Garcia claims in his e-mail, it should ban paid lobbyists from being featured in the section.

Flatt is right: With a 100-word limit, full disclosure of all conflicts does seem pretty onerous for a lobbyist/fundraiser/public relations executive. Better to steer clear of all such of conflicts on the front end than waste space trying to enumerate them.