In the Legislature, Five Reps Did One Man's Bidding

Clean Elections dinged her $20,000, lowered the fine to $5,000, and finally allowed her to pay $2,500.

Another of Querard's candidates, Representative David Burnell Smith, resigned because of Clean Elections violations, though he ran again and was elected.

Constantin Querard had a quintet of legislative flunkies at his disposal.

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• Constantin Querard
• U.S. Republican Party
• Kelly Townsend
• World Politics
• U.S. State Politics

Despite all this ammo, the AG's Office under Terry "Do Nothing" Goddard, produced zero indictments.

During the defamation suit, more Querard shenanigans were uncovered with his nonprofit Arizona Family Project, which paid him a salary and allegedly was used to affect the outcomes of GOP primaries.

"I turned the light on, and they scattered like cockroaches," Ryan said of his work in the libel trial. "Know why? Because they're cockroaches."

Concerning Liddy's allegation that Querard had been "utilizing illegal tactics to launder tax-exempt nonprofit money into politics," the judge in the case said he believed Liddy's statement to be true and ruled against Querard.

No wonder C.Q. wants HB 2551 passed.

On the committee, Democrat Andrea Dalessandro had the temerity to ask how many of the committee's members were clients of Querard's.

Montenegro didn't like that question, advising Dalessandro to "be careful."

Of what? The truth?

"I have 20 clients in this Legislature," Querard kvetched. "It's impossible for me to find a committee that doesn't have someone I've worked with or against [on it]."

He reminded Dalessandro that he had run campaigns against her in the past and suggested the possibility that he might do so again.

"You've heard the bill," C.Q. told her. "Do you want to go back to your district and tell them, by the way, any state agency can go to your bank, take what they want to, they don't have to tell you about it, and I voted to say that was okay?"

Querard left out the part about having that little thing called a subpoena. Details, details.

Justifying their votes, C.Q.'s servants on the committee wrapped themselves in the flag and the U.S. Constitution.

They pointed to a similar federal law that does not apply to the states and suggested this was all about protecting citizens' Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure.

Republican legislator Debbie Lesko also voted for the bill, though C.Q. didn't run her campaign. Perhaps that's what allowed her to voice concern over the DES' objection to the bill.

All three Dems on the committee voted against HB 2551, for what it's worth. This, friends, is our representative democracy at work — and it represents C.Q. pretty darn well.