Activist launches recall drive vs. Tucson GOP Sen. Justine Wadsack

PHOENIX — A Tucson political activist has launched a drive to recall Republican state Sen. Justine Wadsack.

Rolande Baker said Wednesday that Wadsack, a first-time lawmaker who took office in January, “has since sponsored bills that have attacked marginalized communities within Legislative District 17.”

For example, Baker cited Senate Bill 1413, which would have required a city, town or county to immediately remove any homeless encampment after receiving a report and, if applicable, charging those there with trespassing or drug offenses.

Wadsack also sought to amend the Arizona Constitution to repeal the power of cities to establish their own charters, part of a move to strip Tucson of its ability to keep its system of nominating city council members by ward but electing them at large.

She also backed legislation seeking to make it a felony to expose a child to a “drag show.’’

“She is amplifying hysteria about drag performances,’’ Baker said.

About 31,000 signatures needed

Taking out the recall petitions is just the first, and easiest, part of the effort.

Baker needs at least 30,981 valid signatures of registered voters within the Tucson district by Sept. 5. That’s equivalent to 25% of voters who turned out in the last election.

She acknowledged the effort is being run by volunteers with some small donations.

LD 17, which runs from southern Pinal County through the northern and eastern edges of Tucson, is strongly Republican. Still, Wadsack defeated Democrat Mike Nickerson by only about 3,000 votes out of nearly 124,000 ballots cast in November.

Wadsack ‘not concerned’

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Wadsack said she is not worried about the effort, saying she is “busy at the Legislature’’ working on issues including inflation relief, dealing with a border crisis including fentanyl smuggling, alleviating a water supply crisis and “ensuring our students are receiving the best education possible.’’

“Frankly, this recall effort, and the people behind it, don’t have any credibility,’’ Wadsack said. “I’m not concerned to the slightest.’’

Baker protested at high court

Baker, a retired public school teacher, said she is a member of the Arizona and Sunnyside education associations. She said her political involvements range from the Red for Ed Movement to raise teacher pay, to efforts to protect reproductive rights of women, to a move to defeat U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, an Arizona Democrat-turned independent, in the 2024 election.

She also made national news last year when she was one of three women arrested for disrupting a session of the U.S. Supreme Court with a protest over the justices’ reversal of the court’s historic 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that women had a constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy. The 2022 ruling allows each state to set its own abortion restrictions or ban the procedure.

Baker pleaded guilty to a single count of violating a law that bans “speeches and objectionable language’’ in the Supreme Court building and was placed on probation for one year with an order to stay away from the court.

Election potential

Even if a recall election is called, the earliest it could be held is March 2024, or possibly as late as May.

A successful recall also requires finding someone who can get more votes in a special election than Wadsack. Otherwise, she keeps her job.

Baker said, though, it’s not her job to round up contenders and that she’s convinced others will come forward.

The last legislator successfully removed from office was Senate President Russell Pearce, a Mesa Republican, in 2011. That followed his sponsorship of SB 1070, far-reaching legislation to have the state get involved with finding and deporting people not in the country legally.