It’s odd that Republican recall character Larry Elder allegedly thought he could hide one of his sources of income, considering that source of income is called “Laurence A. Elder and Associates Inc.”

It seemed a little fishy when the leading GOP recall candidate Larry Elder got a do-over on submitting unredacted tax returns after initially being left off the recall ballot. Why would he submit redacted tax returns in the first place? That curiosity appears to have spawned an (admittedly partisan) probe into Elder’s finances, as the Chronicle reports Elder is facing a Fair Political Practices Commission probe for allegedly hiding sources of income in his campaign filings.

The probe is based on a complaint filed by the California Democratic Party, so indeed it is partisan in nature. But the Fair Practices Commission saw enough smoke to pursue the complaint, and considering that the company that allegedly did not disclose it’s income is called “Laurence A. Elder and Associates Inc,” this does smell funny.

OK, so what is Laurence A. Elder and Associates Inc.? We looked it up, and… apparently Larry Elder used to be an attorney? The company is listed on the California State Bar website as a law firm, albeit an apparently defunct one. Elder was admitted to the California bar in 1978, but stopped practicing law in 1996, and in 2010 was noted as “Suspended, failed to pay fees.”

The Secretary of State now lists that same-named firm as a “Foreign Stock” entity. According to The Hill, Elder’s campaign updated the documents to show the income is “Between $100,000 and $1 million,” (that is the option listed on the check box), and that “Elder had collected money from The Epoch Times and Alachua County, Fla., Republican Executive Committee.”

Yes, that Epoch Times, the crazy Chinese-American publication that’s sort of a cross between Breitbart News and Shen Yun.

Elder’s campaign argues they quickly fixed the error, “Our campaign was made aware of a simple mistake in our candidate filing and we corrected it as soon as possible. These amendments are quite common in the campaign world,” his communications director Ying Ma told the Chronicle.

And nothing substantive will happen over the complaint itself. At worst, Elder would pay a $5,000 ethics fine, and it would not affect his standing on the September 14 recall ballot.

But Elder either submitted paperwork that was lacking, or purposefully left items off. Neither is a good look for someone asking for the keys to the world’s fifth-largest economy. And honestly, if Larry Elder is on the Epoch Times’ payroll, that in itself ought to be disqualifying for the office.

Related: Loon Recall Candidate Larry Elder Faces Gun and Abuse Charges from Ex-Fiancee [SFist]

Image: Larry Elder via Twitter