ARVADA — The campaign office in a drab strip mall of this metro-area suburb has the urgent feel of an election just days away.

But Election Day for this group is not in November. It’s a Dec. 3 deadline to submit about 18,900 valid signatures to the secretary of state’s office to force a recall vote on Democratic Sen. Evie Hudak.

The effort, based in anger at Colorado’s new Democratic passed gun-control laws, amounts to another end-run at tilting control of the state Senate to Republicans.

On a recent afternoon, volunteers rushed in and out. Some sat while dialing voters. Others stood, pecking at smartphones.

The neon yellow posters that line the walls and front windows made lucid the cause: Recall Hudak.

“We’re not being heard. We have legislation without any real representation,” said Mike McAlpine, a beekeeper from Arvada who is helping lead a renewed recall effort of Hudak.

It’s the second time this year constituents have tried to recall the lawmaker, whose inartful questioning of a rape victim during a debate on a gun measure last legislative session led to national scorn.

The initial effort failed, but Hudak’s critics are emboldened by the successful September recalls of two of her Democratic colleagues, John Morse of Colorado Springs and Angela Giron of Pueblo for their support of stricter gun laws. The recalls have left Democrats with a single-seat majority in the Senate.

McAlpine, who is registered unaffiliated, is receiving substantial backing from Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, the state’s most powerful anti-gun-control group, which on a recent afternoon had several employees volunteering for the recall effort.

Hudak won re-election to the seat last year by about 580 votes in a a three-way race that featured a Libertarian who likely drew votes from her Republican challenger.

“I have a very diverse district, and I understand there are a lot of diverse views in my district, and I listen to them and connect with them each day,” Hudak said. “I do my best to represent them. I voted the way I believe my constituents wanted.”

Democratic strategists grumble that if enough valid signatures are collected to force a special election, Hudak would be lobbied to resign so that a vacancy committee could then appoint a different Democrat to hold the seat until 2014. The move would kill the recall and preserve the party’s single-seat majority in the chamber, but Hudak said she has “no intentions” of resigning, should recall proponents gather enough signatures.

Organizers in Morse and Giron’s Senate districts had to gather smaller amounts of signatures, and were successful by paying volunteers and utilizing online voter registration tools.

McAlpine said through small donations they are now paying only “two young” volunteers and hopes to gather 25,000 signatures.

But sources close to the recalls confirmed Tuesday that McAlpine is using Colorado Springs-based Kennedy Enterprises, the firm that paid volunteers to gather signatures in the Morse recall. Kennedy has in the past received flak for not requiring background checks of employees.

McAlpine and his team — which some days peaks at around 50 volunteers — have taken a page from the playbook of the group that spearheaded the recall of Giron. In real time, on street corners in parking lots and inside the campaign’s office, the group is checking voter registrations of signers to make sure they live in Senate District 19 and are eligible.

For her part, Hudak has hired a campaign manager and has volunteers urging constituents to decline to sign petitions, which has — at times — resulted in confrontations between the two sides.

“Gun owners and Second Amendment advocates can mobilize very well, and I think that was clear in the last two recalls and could be the case this time as well,” said Danielle Thompson, press secretary for the National Association for Gun Rights, with ties to RMGO.

Rick Palacio, chairman of the Colorado Democratic Party, said the shear number of signatures the group must amass will be difficult.

“And we’ll scrutinize and make sure that every signature they pick up is legitimate,” Palacio said. “It’s unfortunate they’ve hired a shady group to go out and gather signatures.”

McAlpine and the efforts of RMGO — which balked early on to the idea of recalls of lawmakers for gun votes — have advanced what many in Colorado political circles have feared: a continuous and never-ending election cycle.

“And that’s something I’m fine with,” said Larry Garcia, an Arvada resident, who on a recent afternoon signed the recall petition at the campaign’s headquarters. “I hope she’s (Hudak) out of there. She’s not representative of who me and my family want in office.”

Hudak during the gun debate became the center of controversy. She was assailed by Republicans and Democrats for telling a rape victim who testified before Hudak’s committee that having a gun would not have prevented the assault. McAlpine has reached out to the woman, Amanda Collins, to get involved though she is from out-of-state.

“Hudak is neither the most sympathetic or compelling figure in the Senate,” said political analyst Eric Sondermann. “But there’s plenty of mediocre legislative members all over the country not being recalled.”

Sondermann said it appears recalls could become standard operating procedure here in Colorado.

At Cuperado Coffee next door to the recall offices, owner John Golay said his new neighbors have been kind and brought new customers to his small business.

“But I’m not signing the petition,” said Golay, who stressed he’s disgusted with partisan politics at play in Washington and state houses across the nation. “The issue of guns is a polarizing issue that blows partisanship up even more, and I hear where they’re coming from. But massacres like Aurora hit a little too close to home. Something had to change.”

Kurtis Lee: 303-954-1655, klee@denverpost.com or twitter.com/kurtisalee