Published reports to the contrary notwithstanding, organizers of the recall targeting Tucson Mayor Bob Walkup and city council members Regina Romero and Karin Uhlich are continuing their efforts.

“While Mayor Walkup’s ‘State of the City’ speech talked about many important issues that will help get business going again, words must match immediate, decisive action,” recall organizer Robert Mayer said in a statement. “A single speech will not do. The people are wary of promises made by the city council, and we would be foolish to even consider dropping anything before we see results.”

Indeed, the report in the Arizona Daily Star of the recall being dropped was based on an interview with businessman Humberto Lopez, the originator of the recall idea, after he had heard Walkup’s Jan. 29 State of the City speech. Losing Lopez’s backing would be significant to the recall effort. Among other things, his HSL Properties is the landlord for the offices of Take Back Tucson.

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“I believe that there is a disconnect between what recall organizer Humberto Lopez said after the mayor’s speech on Friday and the way it is being reported,” another recall organizer, Trent Humphreys, said in a statement. “Certainly action on the part of the leadership to save city business and economic development would put us on the same side, effectively ending the recall, but until measures are considered and passed, we will remain engaged in the recall effort.”

Indeed, what may be most surprising about the talk of dropping the recall is that anybody would think Walkup’s  speech was something more than hizzoner’s usual hyperbole.

The biggest applause came when Walkup suggested streamlining bureaucratic red tape and calling on city workers to try to find ways to be more business friendly. Otherwise, the reaction from the audience was mostly polite applause.

Included in Walkup’s speech was revival of talk for the need for more of Pima County to be either incorporated or annexed into existing municipalities because, they say, the region loses $60 million annually in state revenues.

Those who promote that notion fail Marketing 101 because they offer no tangible benefit to residents and property owners to want to be incorporated.

Green Valley, for example, comes as close as any area in Pima County to being incorporated but residents there have made the choice not to become a municipality. It’s the same sort of thing for the Catalina Foothills, where in 1997 voters rejected a ballot measure to incorporate. Repeated talk of annexation into the City of Tucson has failed to gain traction.

There’s also the question of how much more residents of these now unincorporated areas have to spend in taxes. And even if that $60 million were to come here, who is to say elected leaders from an added layer of bureaucracy would spend the money wisely? (Can you say Rio Nuevo?) These days, people want lower taxes and less government.

It remains to be seen what will become of the effort to recall Walkup, Romero and Uhlich. Both Walkup and Romero will see their terms end next year anyway and Uhlich was just re-elected in November.

Walkup is most likely a lame duck. Even if he hasn’t decided against running for re-election, plenty of others have their eyes set on trying to snare his seat so he may just have to get out of the way of the onslaught.

Practicality may win out over a recall right now. But that has nothing to do with what the mayor said. It’s more important to see what he does.