Arizona Sen. Martha McSally (R)

Republican Rep. Martha McSally, who faces a difficult re-election campaign as Arizona’s junior senator next year, has once again been fined by the FEC for failing to properly disclose past campaign donations—the second time this summer she's been hit for the exact same violation.

The latest instance, reports Dan Desai Martin at Shareblue, concerns some $54,000 that McSally raised in the final two weeks of her successful 2014 campaign for the House. During that timeframe, all federal candidates are required to report any donations of $1,000 or more within 48 hours, but McSally, of course, did not file those 48-hour notices. As a result, she was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine to the FEC—a payment she cutely labeled as "compliance fees" in an April report she filed on behalf of her otherwise defunct House committee.

Last month, McSally told the FEC she'd pay an even larger fine of $23,000 because she'd taken $319,000 in excess contributions during that same 2014 race, exceeding the $2,600 per donor limit in effect at the time. The commission also found that McSally, who has a very long history of serious campaign finance violations, hadn't correctly disclosed $33,000 in donations from PACs during that campaign.

As we noted last time, McSally unseated Democratic Rep. Ron Barber by just 167 votes out of 219,000 cast in 2014, making hers the closest House race in the entire nation that year. We'll never know if McSally's improper fundraising made the difference, but we can certainly say that it might have.