The Arizona Republic offers this report, which begins: “State Rep. David Burnell Smith’s tumultuous year in the Legislature came to an abrupt end Thursday when the Arizona Supreme Court upheld his removal from office for violating spending limits in his publicly funded election campaign. The high court’s action leaves Smith, R-Carefree, as the first lawmaker in the nation removed from office for violating a public campaign funding system. He also becomes the first state lawmaker in the nation to be tossed out through a procedure other than recall, impeachment or a criminal conviction.”