A central question being asked this past week in the CD 8 Republican primary is whether bad news about two leading candidates broke too late for voters to make an informed decision.

The short answer is yes, conceivably — given that a lion’s share of the nearly 100,000 early ballots taken out had already been mailed back in before the news broke.

But that answer is based on two suppositions: That the controversies around Debbie Lesko and Steve Montenegro carry weight, and that the weight would swing enough support away to deny them victory. (Lesko won comfortably Tuesday night.)

That’s where things become a lot more nuanced and uncertain.

Steve Montenegro’s icky texting relationship

The bigger, racier controversy is that of Montenegro, a married father who was found to have carried on a months-long, consensual, sexually charged texting relationship with a junior staffer while the two worked at the Legislature.

Much has been made that Montenegro’s behavior — the staffer’s attorney characterized it as “grooming” his client for a sexual relationship — is morally reprehensible and hypocritical given that he’s a minister who preaches Christian family values.

Much, too, has been made in the comparison of Montenegro to the congressman he’s seeking to replace, Trent Franks, who resigned his seat following reports that he propositioned female staffers about becoming a surrogate mother for his children.

Is infidelity an automatic disqualifier anymore?

Those who believe Montenegro cheated early voters assume that his trespass disqualifies him for office and that those early voters would have rejected him if they had only known before casting the ballot.

But infidelity, or an affair of the heart, is not the same as sexual harassment or assault. And in the era of Donald Trump, a candidate’s character or fitness for office is not necessarily the be-all and end-all.

The fuss involving former Arizona lawmaker Debbie Lesko registers less heat, if not smoke.

Lesko controversy: Lots of smoke, little fire

Her state Senate campaign steered $50,000 to a federal political action committee, Conservative Leadership for Arizona, that has supported her. The controversy centers on how the contribution was disclosed by the super PAC; it was initially filed under the catch-all category of “other federal receipts” — such as dividends and interest.

Days later, presumably after inquiring minds wanted to know, Conservative Leadership for Arizona reclassified the source of the $50,000 to “other political committees,” which required disclosure of who the committee is.

GOP primary rivals Phil Lovas and Montenegro seized on the amended filing as proof of an illegal money-laundering scheme. A complaint has been filed with the Federal Elections Commission and the state attorney general’s office.

Campaign-finance rules murky, hard to grasp

The challenges with the allegations are several-fold, not the least being that the rules governing super PACs are squishy. Proving that Lesko improperly coordinated or communicated with Conservative Leadership for Arizona is a high hurdle.

Plus, the FEC has neither provided clarity nor aggressively acted in instances of potential violations.

If the professionals have difficulty discerning the rules, good luck for the public making sense of alleged offenses.

All of which is not to say the controversies are immaterial. Or that they couldn’t sway the election.

Don’t like the CD 8 result? Stick around

If anything, it should embolden those who believe that the aforementioned issues matter.

This is a special election, after all, to complete the remainder of Franks’ term.

The winner, presuming the heavily conservative district stays the course and elects the Republican nominee in the April 24 general election, will have to do it all again four months later in the regularly scheduled primaries.

And incumbency be damned.

CD 8 is an older, conservative, astute electorate. If the GOP contingent in that district feels it wasn’t afforded the opportunity to get it right the first go-around, it won’t hesitate to make a correction.

Reach Kwok at akwok@azcentral.com.