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ly connects the politician to the unseemly or untoward acts.

There is nothing to suggest that Sinema or the other identified Arizona recipients of contributions from Lacey and Larkin are soft on illegal prostitution or underage trafficking. Identified other recipients include David Garcia, now a candidate for governor; the Arizona Democratic Party; and Congressman Ruben Gallego.

There’s also a hay-wagon full of hypocrisy in the game. Both parties play the game exactly the same way. They could exchange scripts, depending on which party is trying to hang the sins of a supporter or contributor on a politician of the other party.

Sinema is the main target of the Arizona GOP’s guilt-by-association gambit, because she is the Democrats’ best hope for winning a statewide office. Perhaps their only hope. And they hope she will take on Jeff Flake for U.S. Senate in 2018.

Responses to the game are more varied than the opening moves. Sometimes the target tries to ride it out. If the stink is big enough, the target will disavow the miscreant or disgorge the money.

The Democrats called out for receiving contributions from Lacey and Larkin have decided to ditch the cash, including Sinema.

Sinema, however, has had some problem getting someone to accept it. The original charity to which she directed the dough returned it. The second, a nonprofit working in the area of domestic violence, accepted the money but is being criticized for it.

This is truly flabby thinking and moralizing. Sinema is engaged in a symbolic act of expiation. The money she is donating isn’t literally the same money Lacey and Larkin contributed. It’s a donation from her, not them. There is no reason any non-profit shouldn’t accept the donation in good conscience and gratitude.

So, I’d be inclined to give Sinema et al a complete pass on the GOP’s guilt-by-association game regarding contributions from Lacey and Larkin.

There is, however, one thing about the way the targets have played the game that’s nagging me. They all claim not to have known about the involvement of Lacey and Larkin in Backpage.com. That strains credulity.

Lacey and Larkin are well-known figures in Arizona politics. Backpage.com isn’t the only thing they have done.

They also founded New Times, a local weekly that I acknowledge as successful, even though I have never been mentioned in it without being skewered or lampooned. New Times grew up into a national chain of similar publications.

So, Lacey and Larkin are no strangers to Arizona’s political cognoscenti. Their involvement in the controversial Backpage.com was also generally known. And law enforcement’s problems with Backpage.com have been public for some time.

Someone active in Arizona politics would have had to have been remarkably obtuse not to have known of Lacey and Larkin’s involvement in Backpage.com, and law enforcement’s concerns about it, at the time these contributions were made.

That profession of innocence may give this story legs it doesn’t deserve.