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Last updated: 9:14pm PDT/12:14am EDT.

It's official. Rep. Rick Renzi is being investigated by the U.S. Attorney's office for his involvement in a land deal. The story broke just moments ago on the AP wires:

WASHINGTON - A land deal involving Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Ariz., is being scrutinized by the U.S. attorney's office in Arizona, a law enforcement official in Washington said Tuesday.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity while the inquiry is ongoing, said the investigation has been under way for a few months and is still in its very early stages.The official did not specify what land deal was under investigation.

A spokesman for the Arizona U.S. attorney, Paul Charlton, said he could not confirm or deny an investigation was under way.

Renzi also declined to comment, referring questions to his lawyer, former Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods.

Rumor has it that Rep. Rick Renzi (R, AZ-01) may soon be added to the growing list of indicted Congressmen.

Apparently the U.S. Attorney's office of Arizona might be sitting on an indictment of Renzi regarding one of his pay-to-play deals until after the November 7th election. Last week, the Phoenix New Times called a 2005 land swap deal that benefitted one of Renzi's former business partners "a very strange coincidence."

And now, according to Lofty Donkey, a local Arizona blog:

An AP reporter discovered that Renzi may be indicted for income tax fraud and a related charge to the bribery. Renzi has been interviewed by the FBI.

Rick Renzi has done it again. Just a few days after the Federal Election Committee decided to take no further action against the Arizona Congressman for allegations of ethics violations relating to his campaign fundraising in '02 and '04--which came directly from the FEC audit, by the way--Renzi is in the news for another potential violation, this time for using a Congressional staffer as a fundraiser at the same time.

According to Harper's magazine, a loophole in federal law and House ethics rules allow one of his administrative assistants, Patty Roe, to fundraise and staff Renzi at the same time. The rules prevent "senior staff" from having two careers at the same time, or any staff member to work on campaigns during work hours. But because "senior staff" is defined as someone who makes $109,808+ and Roe makes approximately $95,000, the rule technically does not apply to her.

I'm glad someone is finally paying attention to the race in Arizona's 1st congressional. This morning on Fox News, Ellen Ramer of Talk Radio News predicted that Ellen Simon, one of three Democrats running for the seat, would give Republican Rick Renzi a run for his money:

"I have a childhood friend, Ellen Simon, she's running as a Democrat in Arizona, District 1. She'll go against Renzi. That's always been considered a safe Republican seat. But she is a Democrat now, who I think has the message. And I think she's going to be one of those seats the Republicans have always counted on and she will probably wind up winning."

The Fox News commentator's response? To attack Simon's position on illegal immigration. Because Simon represents a real threat to Renzi, a man named one of the "13 Most Corrupt" legislators in Congress, Republicans are trying to gain traction on one of the only issues that they haven't made a complete disaster of - yet. After destroying their credibility nearly every major issue through the debacles in Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, Terri Schiavo, gay marriage, and so on, Republicans are once again relying on security issues to scare the public into voting Republican in the midterms.

The truth is Renzi is vulnerable, and Republicans are running scared.

I'm going to steal this one directly from bulldog111 at DailyKos. I think this is a race too few people are paying attention to, and this entry gives a pretty good run down of why Democrats should be watching this one.