Update to ‘Friends of Vince Leach’ File Belated Challenge To Qualifications Of Justine Wadsack (LD 17).
Following this crazy litigation on the Arizona Daily Star’s Tim Steller’s Twitter account.
I’m at the Pima County trial over a challenge to @Wadsack4Arizona’s residency in Legislative District 17. She won the GOP primary Aug. 2 and is being challenged by voters supporting Sen. Vince Leach, the second place finisher. https://t.co/0vqYUHiKqI
— Once @senyorreporter, but always Tim Steller 🦉 (@timothysteller) August 29, 2022
The plaintiffs’ attorney, Tim La Sota, and Judge Richard Gordon are asking Wadsack why she signed her petition forms that she resided on Sixth Street even after she says she formally moved. She says it was due to redistricting and the delay in switching over the e-qual system.
— Once @senyorreporter, but always Tim Steller 🦉 (@timothysteller) August 29, 2022
She also says she wanted to sign her old address on the petitions until her voter ID and driver’s license reflected the new address. This makes several different explanations for signing her old address to petitions, though some can work together.
— Once @senyorreporter, but always Tim Steller 🦉 (@timothysteller) August 29, 2022
It has been a messy hearing. Lawyers playing audio off their cell phones, Wadsack’s lawyer frustrated at times with her testimony. One audience member asking a deputy to eject another audience member. A phone call to a witness got an answering machine.
— Once @senyorreporter, but always Tim Steller 🦉 (@timothysteller) August 29, 2022
The standard is “clear and convincing evidence.” In my opinion there is no way there was sufficient evidence to rule Wadsack is ineligible. Gordon says he’ll rule tonight.
— Once @senyorreporter, but always Tim Steller 🦉 (@timothysteller) August 30, 2022
As expected, Pima County Superior Court Judge Richard Gordon has ruled that Justine Wadsack may remain on the ballot. She is the GOP candidate for state Senate in LD 17, facing Democrat Mike Nickerson.
— Once @senyorreporter, but always Tim Steller 🦉 (@timothysteller) August 30, 2022
Unless there’s a successful appeal (unlikely) this means Sen. Vince Leach has lost in the district he helped design for himself. Democrats think that gives them a chance of winning, as I reported a couple of weeks ago. https://t.co/1eCe2uARZB
— Once @senyorreporter, but always Tim Steller 🦉 (@timothysteller) August 30, 2022
You will have to catch Tim Steller’s column “for the rest of the story” (as Paul Harvey used to say). The Star will probably put it behind a paywall.
But the takeaway here is “just say no” to this crazy QAnon candidate Justine Wadsack and elect Mike Nickerson so that we do not have to suffer two more years of her craziness.
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If you read what was said in the hearing, Leach is terrible but Wackadoddle is even crazier. Her constantly changing story about moving out of a beautiful home in Sam Hughes is a pack of lies and nonsense. If she would have said she “moved” because aliens were camped in the backyard, that would have been more truthful. The judge knew it. But the legal standard is much higher. She is on the crazy end, just past Rogers and Townsend, which is WAY out there. But in Arizona, we know, crazy gets elected in every year. Sonny B.is another specimen.