There was an embarrassing turn of events for Arizona Republicans this week, as one of their 7th District State Senate Candidates was struck from the ballot denied public campaign financing and fined $20,000 for allegedly submitting fraudulent documents in his request for public campaign matching funds:

The Citizens Clean Elections Commission decertified a Senate candidate after finding that dozens of his $5 contribution forms had been allegedly forged. The commission voted at its May 20 meeting to decertify Robert Green and fine him $20,000.

Under Arizona law, candidates are eligible to receive public matching funds based on the number of $5 contributions they can raise. More than half of Green’s contributions (142 of them) were disqualified by the Clean Elections Commission. The Green campaign is appealing the Commission's decision (and some of those invalidated contributions were apparently re-allowed), but there is no word on whether a reversal is likely before the Republican primary.

The public campaign finance system in Arizona is easily one of the most robust in the nation, and the state’s Clean Elections Commission has broad powers to reprimand, fine, or disqualify candidates who violate campaign finance laws. The Commission can even vote to expel a sitting legislator, as it did to a Republican State Representative last year, if it finds sufficient evidence of campaign finance violations in his or her last campaign. That case is only now wrapping up after a lengthy appeal by the legislator.

Republican Senators voted last year to kill the public-finance system through a ballot measure, a move unanimously opposed by Democratic Senators. That resolution has not been passed by the State House.

The Republicans have two other candidates in the 7th District, based in the northern suburbs of Phoenix, and the eventual nominee will face Democrat Eric Shelley in November.

Update: "Decertify" apparently doesn't mean what we thought it meant in this context. Green is still on the ballot but will not have access to public financing. The post has been updated to reflect that.