Does tainted contribution taint Krysten Sinema?

According to the Arizona Republican Party, and the national Republican Party, Democratic Rep. Krysten Sinema will now and forever be known as the politician who accepted roughly $10,000 in campaign contributions from owners of a website accused of knowingly accepting ads offering sex with underage girls.

Of course, the party would never suggest Sinema actually supports such things, but … they don’t have to. Dirty money doesn’t wash off. Sinema has dumped the cash, first trying to donate it to a non-profit for aspiring journalists. That organization didn’t want the money, so Sinema’s office has to find another taker.

It’s what politicians in this situation do.

The donations came from the former owners of the Phoenix New Times, Michael Lacey and James Larkin, founders of the classified-ad website Backpage .com, which has been under investigation for some time.

Arizona Republican Party communications director Torunn Sinclair said she isn’t buying Sinema’s story about dumping the donation after Lacey and Larkin got into trouble with the law.

“She’s deceiving her constituents,” Sinclair said in a statement. “Unless she hasn’t been following what her fellow Arizona legislators have been doing in Congress, or hasn’t followed the news for nearly a decade, she knew where this money came from and what it represents. Congresswoman Sinema’s actions