Everything about state Sen. Justine Wadsack’s SpeederGate incident is just chef’s-kiss perfect and terribly, terribly wrong as it keeps spooling out.
The Arizona Fraternal Order of Police just revoked its endorsement of Wadsack after she was pulled over for speeding (fast enough to face a criminal charge, even) and later started yelping about “political persecution” when she was informed that she will indeed face a citation.
She took a nothingburger and turned it into a debacle because the local Queen of the MAGAs just can’t pass by opportunity to present herself as a victim. Let’s start with the fact that she has homes in Dove Mountain and the Sam Hughes neighborhood and, she says, multiple gas-powered vehicles “with low mileage.”
Related: Sen. Justine Wadsack claims ‘political persecution’ over Tucson criminal speeding ticket
Wadsack must be a victim of a deep state out to destroy her, right? Police, of course, have a long, dark history of harassing well-off elected Republican white women in their early 50s. It’s an American wound that may never heal (for those who have trouble with nuance, the preceding is snark).
As first reported last week by the Tucson Sentinel, the firebrand Republican lawmaker was informed on June 27 that she was being cited for, well, breaking the law. The incident happened March 15 when police clocked her doing 71 in a 35 heading down Speedway. That is a class 3 misdemeanor, which could theoretically carry a 30-day jail sentence but she almost certainly was looking at a fine and maybe probation.
She got pulled over in a red 2015 Model S 85 just after 10 p.m. She told police she was “racing to get home” because she only had four miles of battery left and needed to haul ass so the EV didn’t die.
There is so, so much wrong with that sentence.
For starters, what the hell is the Legislature’s queen MAGA doing driving an electric vehicle? When did she get the Woke Mind Virus? Isn’t she afraid of it bursting into flames all around her? What about the birds and the sharks? Oh, wait. Windmills are killing off the birds and sharks electrocute Hannibal Lecters. Gotcha. Sorry. Forgot. It’s hard to keep up.
And why is she talking about being worried about having just four miles of range left to get home? She was at the intersection of heading east on Speedway near the University of Arizona, when the emergency lights were activated and a traffic stop was made between Campbell and Tucson. Her home is supposed to be near Dove Mountain — that’s where she’s registered to vote. That’s how she’s eligible to be elected in her legislative district. No one gets there from Speedway and Campbell by driving east. Even going in the right direction, it’s almost 20 miles away.
She does have a home just 10 blocks away from the spot she was pulled over — she and her husband own a Sam Hughes residence. That’s where she was registered to vote when she ran and lost a 2020 election to Democrat Kirsten Engel.
And since when does drawing more power from a battery save its life? Anyone of Wadsack’s generation knows that rewinding a Walkman didn’t save the battery.
Anyway, she didn’t get the ticket immediately because the Legislature was in session and lawmakers can’t be arrested (except for “treason, felony or breach of the peace”) or sued until after “sine die,” which is fancy bureaucratese for when the senators and representatives adjourn for the year because they’ve run out of things to mess around with. That’s part of the Arizona Constitution, meant to keep the powers that be from tossing other politicians in the pokey so they can’t vote on new laws.
“My name is Senator Justine Wadsack,” she informed the officer when he asked for her license, registration and insurance. She didn’t have that insurance card, by the way. (Feel ya; been there.)
So TPD reviewed the situation and prepared to give her a citation later.
When they called her in late June to ask if she could come down and sign the ticket, she yelped about “political persecution” because of course she did. She was also persecuted when a police lieutenant called her “Mrs. Wadsack” and not “Senator Wadsack,” apparently.
Wadsack’s response, to the traffic incident and on social media after the Sentinel’s report last week, was enough for the cops who’d publicly supported her.
The Fraternal Order of Police withdrew their endorsement of Wadsack in a statement issued Tuesday.
“While
Sen. Wadsack has been a consistent supporter of public safety in her
official capacity, this incident and her decision to publicly impugning
the motives of police personnel is conduct unbecoming an elected
representative,” said Paul Sheldon, the FOP president. “Our endorsement committee reviewed this situation carefully,
then voted to retract this endorsement. Like everyone else accused of a
traffic violation, Sen. Wadsack is innocent until proven guilty. But
attacking police personnel for doing their jobs is simply unacceptable.”
Yeah, see, sometimes it’s important to STFU.
Or as former Pima County Sheriff Mark Napier put it on a Facebook post, “She turned a nothing story into a fiasco.”
“You did the crime, take your ticket, shut up and move on” would be his “two cents” for a lawmaker actually guilty of speeding, he suggested.
“I have more than a casual understanding of law enforcement and police procedures,” the former Republican sheriff noted.
Meanwhile, City Attorney Mike Rankin noted the difference between “persecution” (punishing someone for an identity or belief) and “prosecution” (ya done broke the law).
“Citing someone — Ms. Wadsack or anyone else — for putting other
people in danger by driving at speeds more than 20 miles per hour above
the posted speed limit within city limits is not ‘persecution.’ It is
prosecution,” he said.
Speak the word, Michael.
The defense, for the record
Wadsack is saying on Facebook she is not above the law, but claiming an effort to hold her accountable under that law is political persecution. I mean, 71 in a 35 is not a close call.
She said the Tucson Police Department endorsed her Republican primary
opponent, former Sen. Vince Leach and then decided to give her a ticket. The
fix is in, see?
Except TPD endorsed no one. The Tucson Police Officers Association, the cop’s union, endorsed Leach. TPD is a government agency. It’s not able to endorse any elected officials at all. Things just don’t work that way.
Wadsack continued: “The media and my opponent are desperate for content.” Yeah, ‘cuz there’s nothing else to write about today. If Wadsack had just decided to not declare her status as a lawmaker and quietly paid her ticket, there wouldn’t be much of a story here — no matter that she was (allegedly) doing more than twice the speed limit.
This wouldn’t even be a one-day story, if she’d done that. Instead, it’s turned into a multi-day rolling mess as newspapers and TV stations all over the state pick up on the Sentinel’s report from last Friday.
She — who never responded to questions sent by the Sentinel more than a day before the original report was published — said on Facebook that she has proof she wasn’t speeding that night. She welcomed the police to download her Tesla app for data that proves it. Good. Go for it.
Hilarious detour
OK, hold on. Hold on, hold on.
I must interrupt this column to bring readers an update on Wadsack’s defense of driving her EV. Smell the fear as her supporters learn she drives something emitting no carbon monoxide:
Yes.
I have a 2016 Tesla S that I bought used as my commuter car for many
reasons; self-drive, safety, performance, and I can drive it till it
dies.
– I commute 4,000 miles each month to serve as your Senator + all the driving in my campaign. Thousands of miles each month.
– I also own (3) GAS POWERED vehicles, all with low miles and I don’t want the ware & tear on them.
– I am PRO FUEL! But I also want to keep my other cars nice.
–
PROBLEM: there’s no charging infrastructure in Tucson. No charging
where I live in Marana. I spend many hours sitting at charging stations,
and frankly… there’s only (1) on River.
– “Range Anxiety” is real.
– I needed to charge with 1% battery and a few blocks to go. I’ve never been that low before and I didn’t want to find out what it was like to die in the road.
“Honest! I am a nihilist! Please keep loving meeee!”
Well
senator, good thing for you, President Joe Biden signed into law
investments to build all sorts of new charging stations. I bet you are
so grateful and I’m sorry to hear about “range anxiety.” That must be
really hard for you.
Wadsack said in her post that she has “3 homes, and I’m not banned
from going to any of them,” and said that she has been “working on my
home in Tucson to prepare it for sale.”
‘This isn’t right’
“I do wish they had given me the ticket at the time so I could have dealt with it then. I still argue the alleged speed and never saw the radar gun. I was told I could leave, and was given nothing. This isn’t right,” she said in a comment on her Facebook post.
Napier, a Republican lawdog, told me over the phone Wadsack is perfectly within her rights to present exculpatory evidence and thank the court for a not-guilty verdict.
“If she has proof of her innocence, the place to advertise that is court, not social media,” Napier said. “She’s an elected leader. This isn’t the way to do things.”
Whose country is it?
Ahhh. But Napier is an old-school Republican, who doesn’t wallow in grievance and run about convinced the world is conspiring against him.
Wadsack is new school. She’s of the 9/11-was-in-inside-job variety. Conspiracy is everywhere and she’s the victim of half of them. It’s the current that supercharges her political movement. MAGAs see America as their country and the rest of us are just renters. Equal treatment offends them because there should be no equality between owners and tenants.
The law is something that binds us all and protects us all. We must each drive under the speed limit. However, if we get caught and charged with criminal speeding, the state must prove charges against us beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
When you believe the country is yours, then the law is a weapon to wield against all those renters to keep them in line and show them who’s in charge. Wadsack sees our insistence on equal treatment as an act of aggression because we don’t know our place. Therefore we are coming to get her. That gives her the right to get us first.
And that’s what connects Wadsack’s arrest to the 2024 election. If her team gets a hold on the power of the federal government, the paranoia will come for all of us.
They’re pretty much promising it.
We’ve all got it coming
“The media works to destroy good Republicans,” Wadsack claimed.
The media and the police don’t always get … what’s the word? Oh … along. We are often at cross purposes. Professionally, cops don’t tend to like us asking so many damn questions.
Personally?
I got a DUI in 2007. I did it. I was stupid. I drove four blocks home from Cactus Moon on “Ladies Night.” I knew
police always hit that stretch of Broadway with “wolf packs.” I never went to that particular country bar.
The cop who pulled me over left me with one thought: “Damn, that was a letter-perfect traffic stop.” I couldn’t complain.
Rankin’s attorneys prosecuted me. It wasn’t some massive freaking plot. Dylan Smith (now the Sentinel’s editor) reported the story for our newsroom at the time, the Tucson Citizen, because journalists get written about when they do stuff like that.
I took a plea and showed up at the Pima County Jail to do my 24 hours. A corrections officer lead me through intake, and I told him how I screwed up by going to that particular bar on that particular night and concluded “because I’m an idiot.”
The CO stopped and turned to me. “No you aren’t. You just made a mistake.”
Justine, that’s all it had to be.