Sen. Wendy Rogers lashes out Tuesday at colleagues as they vote to censure her, saying they were infringing on her freedom of speech. /Capitol Media Services photo by Howard Fischer
By Howard Fischer | Capitol Media Services Sen.
State senators decided Tuesday to do something they haven’t done in decades: censure one of their own.
By a 24-3 margin lawmakers voted to censure Sen. Wendy Rogers, R-Flagstaff, for “conduct unbecoming of a Senator.
The specifics included “publicly issuing and promoting social media and video messaging encouraging violence against and punishment of American citizens.” All that flows from her activities, including a speech to a white supremacist group late last month.
But it was a last-ditch effort by Rogers to avoid census through political threats to fellow Republicans that led senators to also conclude that a censure was appropriate.
Rogers lashed out, calling the action an attack on free speech.
“I do not apologize,” she said. “I will not back down.”