No love lost: Efforts to recall Tucson freshman Republican Sen. Justine Wadsack are becoming contentious, according to the Arizona Mirror’s Jerod MacDonald-Evoy. Volunteers gathering signatures in support of the recall have been “combatively engaged” by Wadsack supporters and the senator has accused one critic of being a “stalker” and another a “registered communist.” Volunteers need to gather 30,981 signatures by Sept. 5 to trigger the recall. Meanwhile former lawmaker Frank Antenori penned an open letter to stick up for a Republican activist who questioned some of Wadsack’s votes. He accused the senator of getting her friends at the local GOP to launch a coordinated online bullying campaign that culminated in a resolution that Antenori said is clearly threatening to expel members for speaking against elected Republicans.

“A fragile snowflake of a State Senator, who seems incapable of receiving any kind of criticism without throwing a tantrum, has now weaponized the Pima County GOP to exact revenge on her perceived enemies,” Antenori wrote. (July 26, 2023)

Proving his point: State Sen. Justine Wadsack is doubling down on claims of harassment while she faces a potential recall. This time, she targeted Arizona Daily Star columnist Tim Steller. In response to Steller’s recent column about Wadsack reflexively calling any criticism “defamation,” she tweeted that he lied about her, saying the “defamation is staggering.” Of course, she didn’t say what he supposedly lied about. As Steller put it in his column, dealing with criticism without lashing out is “part of the job, especially for a legislator trying to turn controversial ideas into law.” (August 21, 2023)

That’s a wrap: The “Sack Wadsack” effort to recall state Sen. Justine Wadsack is wrapping up. All that’s left is to see whether they gathered enough signatures, the Tucson Sentinel’s Jim Nintzel reports. Wadsack, the first-term Republican representing North Tucson’s Legislative District 17, would face a special election next spring if the recall effort gathered about 31,000 valid signatures from voters in her district by 5 p.m. today. Fittingly, backers of the recall effort celebrated with a drag show, one of Wadsack’s legislative targets. (September 5, 2023)

Recall fails: The effort to recall state Sen. Justine Wadsack, a Republican representing Legislative District 17 on Tucson’s north side, has failed. Organizers did not get enough valid signatures to force a special election in the spring, the Tucson Sentinel’s Jim Nintzel reports. (September 6, 2023)