Sen. Justine Wadsack is popped for doing 71 in a 35 zone. Naturally, she sees a conspiracy
The most eye-popping part of the latest news about Sen. Justine Wadsack, alleged criminal speeder, is not the way she tried to use her status as a state senator to wiggle out of a traffic ticket.
It is not her sense of entitlement or her bizarre claim of “political persecution” after she was clocked going 71 mph in a 35 mph zone.
No, it’s the reason Sen. Speed Demon was hurtling down the road in Tucson late one Friday night, near the family home she says she doesn’t live in — a house that is miles outside her legislative district.
Wadsack said she was 'racing to get home'
Here is how the March 15 traffic stop, just after 10 p.m., began, according to police bodycam footage obtained by the Tucson Sentinel.
“Do you have your driver’s license, registration and insurance?” the Tucson police officer asked as Wadsack sat in her red Tesla just off Speedway in midtown Tucson.
“Yes, I do,” she replied. “My name is Sen. Justine Wadsack and I’m racing to get home because I have four miles left on my charger before I’m about to go down.”
But Wadsack claims to live in an apartment in Marana nearly 20 miles away in the district she represents — not the family home that is 10 blocks from where she was stopped.
She supposedly moved out of her family’s midtown Tucson home in 2022, first renting a room in a safe Republican district where she proceeded to knock off Republican Sen. Vince Leach, then supposedly moving into an apartment in Marana.
Wadsack, a member of the Legislature’s hard-right Arizona Freedom Caucus, is now locked in a fierce do-over battle with Leach, a traditional conservative, in the July 30 primary.
She claims she lives in Marana, not Tucson
Should Leach win, the seat — and probably control of the Arizona Senate — should be a lock for Republicans.
Democrats are salivating for a Wadsack win. She’s considered vulnerable in November, given that she drew just 51.2% of the vote in November 2022, in a district where Republicans enjoy a nearly 10-point advantage.
So, there she was, reportedly doing 71 in a 35 mph zone late at night, “racing to get home” to a house in which she doesn’t live.
State law requires that a legislator live in the district he or she seeks to represent, though no judge has been willing to enforce the law.
In legal terms, home apparently isn’t where you sleep at night or even where your Tesla is charged. It’s wherever you claim it is. (See: Sen. Wendy Rogers, who claims to live in a Flagstaff trailer yet gets travel reimbursements sent to her home in Tempe.)
Wadsack didn’t get a ticket that night, having made sure the police officer knew she was a state senator and thus immune from annoyances like criminal speeding tickets while the Legislature is in session.
Wadsack says her ticket is 'political persecution'
But that immunity ends once the Legislature adjourns. Now, Wadsack is getting the ticket for criminal speeding that we, the little people, would have gotten while sitting there on the side of the road.
On June 27, 12 days after the Legislature adjourned, the Sentinel reports a Tucson lieutenant called Wadsack to arrange a time to bring her the ticket.
“She demanded to speak with the chief of police and said that she was under ‘political persecution,’ ” Lt. Lauren Pettey wrote. “She also said that I was being aggressive and got upset when I called her Mrs. Wadsack and not Senator Wadsack. She then abruptly ended the conversation and hung up the phone.”
Last Wednesday, the Sentinel reports the officer who made the traffic stop swore out a summons in Tucson City Court, citing Wadsack for criminal speeding, a misdemeanor offense, and failure to provide proof of insurance.
Naturally, Wadsack claims a conspiracy is afoot.
Wadsack thinks: 9/11 is an inside job
That she wasn't doing 71 mph and that Tucson police targeted her because she is investigating the department on behalf of a constituent.
That she was contacted about the ticket “immediately” after Leach was endorsed by the Tucson Police Officers Association.
“As a new legislator, I had never heard of ticketing me months later as it’s not in the language of the law,” she said in a Saturday Facebook post, a day after the Tucson Sentinel broke the story of her traffic stop.
Actually, lawmakers can be held accountable
For Wadsack and others unschooled in state law, “legislative immunity” is aimed at ensuring lawmakers can’t be arrested in most cases or “subject to any civil process” and thus prevented from voting during the legislative session.
It doesn’t mean a lawmaker can never be held accountable for her actions.
No doubt, that’s what Wadsack was hoping. It’s likely why she has a plaque displayed beneath her license plate, proclaiming herself a senator. And why she has a sticker on the back of her driver’s license.
And why she introduces herself as “Senator Justine Wadsack” and corrects police lieutenants who fail to use her title.
As for “racing to get home” late on a Friday night to the house where she says she doesn’t live, Wadsack says she’s remodeling the place and plans to put it up for sale.
“It’s one of (3) homes, and I’m not banned from going to any of them,” she wrote.
No, senator, you aren’t.
Just as police aren’t banned from giving you a speeding ticket for barreling at twice the legal speed limit to get “home” to that late-night remodeling job.
Not even if your name is “Senator Justine Wadsack.”
Reach Roberts at [email protected]. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) at @LaurieRobertsaz.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Justine Wadsack plays 'senator' card to avoid criminal speeding ticket