Senate’s ethics inquiry reeks of political payback

The Senate Ethics Committee — determined to root out all manner of criminals, conspirators and colleagues otherwise engaged in nefarious activity — has voted to launch an investigation into one of its own.

The GOP-controlled panel is going after Sen. Catherine Miranda, D-Phoenix, on suspicion that she wantonly and willfully violated state elections laws.

This, when she circulated a referendum petition to block Arizona’s expanded voucher law. You know, the one that’ll be on next year’s ballot as Proposition 305 because more than 80,000 voters said so?

So what horror is Miranda alleged to have perpetrated, you ask? What wool did she proceed to pull over the eyes of unsuspecting citizens?

Senate Majority Leader Steve Montenegro, R-Avondale, says she failed to check the box on a petition indicating that she was a volunteer rather than paid circulator.

Exhibit A: a picture posted to social media that shows Miranda circulating a petition with several signatures and an empty box where circulators must indicate whether they are getting paid or doing it on a volunteer basis.

By the time the petition was turned in to the Secretary of State’s Office, the box had been checked.

State election law requires the box be checked before gathering signatures. Failure to do so — by knowingly falsifying a petition — is a crime.

Because who knows how many people might have refused to sign a petition had they only known Miranda was working as a volunteer rather than getting paid to snag their signature?

Voting to investigate Miranda are three supporters of the expanded voucher law: Republican Sens. Kimberly Yee of Phoenix, Judy Burges of Sun City West, and Montenegro, who said the panel has “the grounds, the purview, the jurisdiction.”

Also, the chutzpah. If Miranda messed up the petition, the Secretary of State’s Office should throw out that sheet of signatures. But this rank overreaction reeks of political payback.

They also forwarded the complaint to Attorney General Mark Brnovich for a criminal investigation. They plan to delay their ethics probe — one that could result in Miranda’s expulsion from the Senate — until Brnovich decides whether to prosecute.

This is a committee that has never investigated senators who fake their home addresses to run for open seats in districts where they don’t live. Never investigated senators who profit handsomely from laws they vote to enact.

But an oversight on a petition aimed at stopping a law that they and their “dark money” supporters badly want? Call the cops.

By the way, Miranda’s supposed criminal offense is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to six months in jail.

The same punishment, ironically, that ex-Sheriff Joe Arpaio faced before President Donald Trump pardoned him for ignoring a federal judge’s order to stop his immigration patrols. Do you suppose the president ... ? Nah.