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Former representative and city Republican confiscates Ecstasy specimen (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

exemplar

'specimen' is the definition.
(I have seen 'Typical specimen' mean 'exemplar' so perhaps 'specimen' could also mean 'exemplar')

'former representative and city republican' is the wordplay.
'former' becomes 'ex' (prefix meaning former or onetime).
'representative' becomes 'emp' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'and' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'city' becomes 'LA' (Los Angeles).
'republican' becomes 'r' (abbreviation).
'ex'+'emp'+'la'+'r'='EXEMPLAR'

'confiscates ecstasy' is the link.
This may not be right. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.

(Other definitions for exemplar that I've seen before include "Model to be followed" , "A good model or type" , "Epitome" , "Something serving as an appropriate model" , "A model or instance" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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