Alexander Kolodin | |
---|---|
Member of the ArizonaHouseofRepresentatives from the 3rd district | |
Assumed office January 9, 2023 Servingwith Joseph Chaplik | |
Preceded by | Alma Hernandez |
Personal details | |
Nationality | American |
Political party | Republican |
Residence(s) | Scottsdale,Arizona,U.S. |
Alma mater | Georgetown University University of Pennsylvania |
Signature | |
Website | Campaign Website |
Alexander Kolodin,or Alex Kolodin is an American lawyer,politician and Republican member of the Arizona House of Representatives elected to represent District 3 in 2022.
Kolodin graduated from Georgetown University,prior to becoming an English and civics teacher. He then attended law school at the University of Pennsylvania. He was a Reagan Fellow at the Goldwater Institute,and also owned his own law practice. [1] He is Jewish. [2]
According to Kolodin's campaign website,he began litigating for election integrity in 2014. [3] Before the 2020 election,Kolodin won a case against Adrian Fontes for sending out instructions that voters could cross out votes,an instruction Kolodin accused Fontes of being ripe to cause fraud. [3]
Kolodin came to prominence when he filed lawsuits to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Arizona. [4] Kolodin also represented those involved in the alternate elector plan,arguing in an August 2022 court filing to block the January 6th committee from accessing the phone records of the Republican Party chair,that "Trump electors simply created a backup plan in case legal challenges to Arizona’s outcome were successful." [5] Kolodin represented the alternate electors as part of a broader effort to overturn the 2020 election in Congress. [3] Kolodin reports on his campaign webpage,"The evidence collected during that trial was used by Congress to decide whether to accept the results of the election - and was a large reason why so many members of Congress objected to the results." [3] Kolodin also represented the CyberNinjas audit team when the Democratic Party attempted to stop the audit. [3]
In April 2023,Kolodin defended lawmaker Liz Harris,a QAnon adherent,who was expelled by the legislature for lying to the ethics committee,as part of a probe investigating Harris inviting a conspiracy theorist to present harmful and damaging information impugning the reputation of fellow legislative members and the LDS church. [6] Kolodin later stated Harris made an error in judgment hosting the hearing which aired several conspiracy theories,but did not address fellow lawmakers' allegations that while before the Ethics Committee,Harris lied about her involvement during the public committee hearing. [7]
In June 2023,Kolodin supported a bill to allow hand counting of votes,thus discouraging the use of voting machines. [8] The same month,Kolodin unsuccessfully sued to end early voting in Arizona. [9] Kolodin represented the group Clean Elections USA after they were involved in a lawsuit for violations of the Voting Rights Act. [10]
Kolodin also represented the CyberNinjas after it was commissioned by the Arizona Senate to conduct an audit. [11] In 2022,when the House Select Committee to Investigate January 6 subpoenaed the phone records of Republican Party Chair Kelly Ward,Kolodin represented Ward in the appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court to block access to her records. [12]
In 2022,Kolodin successfully represented Congressman Paul Gosar before the Arizona Supreme Court in a suit seeking to bar him from the Arizona ballot on Fourteenth Amendment grounds. [13] The following year,Kolodin praised the ruling,while criticizing Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes,who expressed public disappointment he would not be able to keep former President Donald Trump from appearing on the ballot in Arizona in 2024. [14]
In December 2023,Kolodin received an admonition by the Arizona Bar for his involvement in efforts to overturn the 2020 election,including acting as local Counsel for Sidney Powell's election fraud case in Arizona. [15] [16] Kolodin also filed a lawsuit alleging Sharpies were a cause of ballot fraud in a conspiracy known as #Sharpiegate,which was also scrutinized by the bar. [15]
In 2023,Kolodin introduced multiple bills aimed at addressing the water crises both throughout Arizona and particularly in the Rio Verde foothills. [17] [18] These efforts ranged from attempts to guarantee water to the citizens of the Foothills and barring Maricopa County from issuing new building permits to the community while long-term solutions are worked out,amongst others. [19] [20] On April 10,2023,Kolodin's bill to secure water for Rio Verde passed the House with a bipartisan supermajority. [21] [22] It was eventually signed into law and water was restored. [23]
In 2024,Kolodin sponsored a bill to resolve conflicts between Arizona election law and the federal Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022. The bill,which was ultimately signed into law,was touted by supporters as "put[ting] into law critical election integrity reforms to improve election procedures and strengthen voter confidence" such as legally binding signature verification rules for confirming the identity of early voters,the public posting of the system log files,and improvements to the chain of custody for handling ballots. [24] Governor Katie Hobbs acknowledged that she "really didn’t get anything out of the deal[,]" [25] but nonetheless touted the bill as a "bipartisan compromise[.]" [26]
On September 4,2023,Kolodin and Kari Lake supported findings presented in the House Big Tech Committee meeting that Google played a substantial role in election influence. [27] In the hearing a psychology researcher explained that Google played a role in shaping the 2016 election to favor Hillary Clinton and in 2022 cost Kari Lake her election. In 2016 Clinton hired Google CEO Eric Schmidt as her tech advisor. [27] [28]
Rio Verde is a master-planned community east of Scottsdale in Arizona. It is a census-designated place (CDP) in Maricopa County,Arizona,United States located in the far northeast area of the Phoenix Metropolitan Area. The population was 2,210 as of the 2020 census,up from 1,811 at the 2010 census.
Kari Lake Halperin is an American political figure and former television news anchor. She was the Republican Party's nominee in both Arizona's 2022 gubernatorial and 2024 United States Senate elections.
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Kathleen Marie Hobbs is an American politician and social worker serving as the 24th governor of Arizona since 2023. Hobbs is the first social worker to be elected governor of a U.S. state and is Arizona's fifth female governor. A member of the Democratic Party,she was secretary of state of Arizona from 2019 to 2023 and a member of the Arizona Legislature from 2011 to 2019.
Kelly Townsend is an American author,childbirth educator and birth doula who was a Republican politician. She was a member of the Arizona Senate representing District 16 from 2021 to 2023,and previously was a member of the Arizona House of Representatives from 2013 to 2021,acting as Majority Whip from 2017 to 2018.
Javan Daniel "J. D." Mesnard is an American politician and a Republican member of the Arizona Senate representing District 13 since 2023. He previously represented District 17 from 2019 to 2023.
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Mark William Finchem is an American far right politician who served as a member of the Arizona House of Representatives representing District 11 from 2015 to 2023. He is the Arizona coordinator for the Coalition of Western States,an organization that opposes the activities of the Bureau of Land Management and supported the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in 2016.
Venden "Vince" Leach is an American politician from Arizona. A Republican,he was a member of the Arizona State Senate from 2019 to 2023,representing District 11. From 2015 to 2019,he was a member of the Arizona House of Representatives representing District 11. Leach won the race for Arizona state senate from Legislative District 17 in the 2024 Arizona Senate election.
Arizona's 3rd legislative district is one of 30 in the state,consisting of a section of Maricopa County. As of 2023,there are 58 precincts in the district,all in Maricopa,with a total registered voter population of 175,721. The district has an overall population of 236,955.
Frank Carroll is an American politician and a Republican member of the Arizona Senate representing District 28 since January 9,2023. He was a member of the Arizona House of Representatives from 2019 to 2023,representing House District 22. Carroll was first elected in 2018 to succeed State Representative David Livingston,who instead ran for State Senate.
The 2022 Arizona gubernatorial election occurred on November 8,2022,to elect the next governor of Arizona,concurrently with other federal and state elections. Incumbent Republican Governor Doug Ducey was term-limited and ineligible to run for a third consecutive term. Democratic Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs narrowly defeated Republican former television journalist Kari Lake.
Members of the United States Republican Party have reacted differently to Republican president Donald Trump's claims about the 2020 United States presidential election,with many publicly supporting them,many remaining silent,and a few publicly denouncing them. Trump claimed to have won the election,and made many claims of election fraud. By December 11,2020,126 out of 196 Republican members of the House backed a lawsuit filed in the United States Supreme Court supported by nineteen Republican state attorneys general seeking to subvert the election and overturn the election results. The Trump campaign hired the Berkeley Research Group to investigate whether there had been voter fraud. The researchers found nothing,and the consultancy reported this to Trump and his chief of staff Mark Meadows on a conference call in the final days of the year,before the attack on the Capitol.
In direct response to election changes related to the COVID-19 pandemic,2020 United States presidential election in Arizona,and "Sharpiegate";the Donald Trump 2020 presidential campaign launched numerous lawsuits contesting the election processes of Arizona. All of these were either dismissed or dropped.
The 2022 Arizona elections were held in the state of Arizona on November 8,2022,coinciding with the nationwide general election. All six executive offices were up for election,as well as a U.S. Senate seat,all of the state's U.S. House of Representatives seats,and the state legislature.
The 2022 Arizona Secretary of State election was held on Tuesday,November 8,to elect the next Secretary of State of Arizona. Incumbent Secretary of State Katie Hobbs declined to run for a second term,to instead run for governor. Primary elections were held on August 2,2022. Democrat and former Maricopa County recorder Adrian Fontes defeated Republican representative Mark Finchem by 4.8%.
Janae Shamp is an American politician and nurse representing Arizona's 29th legislative district in the Arizona State Senate since 2022. Shamp is a registered member of the Republican Party and was one of several legislative candidates endorsed by former president Donald Trump in Arizona.
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Ayes 46 Nays 13 NV 0 Exc 0 Vac 1
Also passed my bill (sponsored by all three LD3 members) to end Rio Verde water crisis w/supermajority!