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Attempt to Quickly Oust Tucson Rep. Patterson Fails

The move came a day after an independent investigative team concluded Daniel Patterson has a pattern of misconduct, including harassing and threatening colleagues, staff and lobbyists and given his history, should be removed from office. House Minority Leader Chad Campbell said, given Patterson's conduct, he did not want to wait for the Ethics Committee to review the report and make its recommendation to the full House.

"Let the process play out if you secure the House and make members feel safe. I've said it time and time again," said Campbell.  "All I asked for yesterday from the speaker was security measures in place that made some of my members and those other people including I've heard from Republicans, feel safe. That request was rejected."

But House Speaker Andy Tobin rejected a request to bar Patterson from the building except to go to the floor to vote, saying security personnel already are keeping an eye him. And Representative Ted Vogt who chairs the Ethics Committee, said procedures need to be followed.

"We have a process here," Vogt pointed out. "And we need to follow the process because we're not just dealing with this case here but we're dealing with future cases. We haven't had a lot of ethics investigations or ethics concerns up here at the House. And therefore, everything we do here does become precedential."

The House did agree to shorten the time Patterson has to respond to the report from two weeks to one.