Little noticed amid the firestorm last month over the expulsions and almost immediate reappointments of Tennessee state Representatives Justins Jones and Pearson from their chambers was another defenestration of a duly-elected member of a state legislature, Arizona state House Representative Liz Harris. The circumstances bore some similarities: Pearson, Jones, and Harris were all accused of being disruptive to the normal functions of their respective chambers by leading outspoken citizens in to challenge the leaderships over their failures, real and perceived.

The similarities end with the outcomes: Pearson and Jones were reappointed by their constituencies to continue representing them, while on Friday the Maricopa County, Arizona Board of Supervisors voted 4 to 1 to appoint Julie Willoughby to replace Harris in the AZ-13 state House seat.

Oh and there’s one other pretty big difference: While Democrats Jones and Pearson were expelled for being Black and rallying gun control protestors in a loud but peaceful demonstration at the state Capitol, Harris, a Republican, was expelled for calling a local State Farm insurance agent to testify at a legislative hearing in which the State Farm agent accused Governor Katie Hobbs, Senator Kyrsten Sinema, the entire Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, numerous judges, elected officials, and others of money laundering for the Sinaloa drug cartel as part of a bizarre election fraud scheme. What did Harris in was probably that Republican state House and Senate leaders – among them famous QAnon freak Wendy Rogers – were among the accused of connections to the notoriously violent cartel. That makes the situation pretty different from the one in Tennessee and why Harris, despite having lobbied the Maricopa board for reappointment, remains unemployed.