Arizona pays Mecham impeachment bill.

• Position: Evan Mecham

Lawmakers closed the book on one of the most wrenching chapters in Arizona politics by paying what some considered a long overdue bill.

As the regular session of the Arizona Legislature drew to a close in mid-April, enough votes were corralled to pay former Governor Evan Mecham $423,000 to cover expenses he incurred while fighting impeachment and recall in 1988.

But, there was a string attached. Mecham had to agree not to sue the state again if he accepted the money. A 1992 Mecham suit against the state was dismissed in U.S. District Court a week or so before lawmakers approved the pay-off.

House Minority Leader Art Hamilton contended that paying Mecham the money was "the absolutely wrong thing to do." But a majority of Arizona legislators adopted the philosophy of Representative Jeff Groscost, who simply wanted the Mecham affair to "go away." Senator Stan Furman, who like many of his colleagues was not in office during the impeachment imbroglio, figured that "we have an obligation to do what a former Legislature committed to do, but never did."

Hamilton insisted that the Legislature's action authorizing the payment "brazenly exceeds" the state constitution's limit on laws granting individual privileges. Acting as a private taxpayer, he filed a special action in June asking the Arizona Supreme Court to block the...