Drinking with Alex Kolodin
Drinking with Alex Kolodin
He’s just as strange under the influence … No rules for the rulemakers … And Fontes gets his revenge.
We had a grand old time throwing back a few drinks this week with Republican Rep. Alexander Kolodin, one of the leading voices of Arizona’s MAGA movement.
The conversation was a little more contentious than our previous sit-downs, which are part of a new monthly series where we interview politicians after they’ve had a few.1
It’s safe to say Kolodin’s views hold strong under the influence of chardonnay (his drink of choice for the night).
We talked about water policy, the abortion repeal and why he thinks “it’s more likely than not” that Donald Trump won in 2020. Not to mention he thinks George W. Bush stole the 2004 election2 (because his dad was a one-time director of the CIA).
Before you jump to the comment section, we know many of you think we shouldn’t give Kolodin a platform in the first place. We think it’s important to understand how and why the people representing us think the way they do.
And yes, he does want to use this opportunity to corrupt your liberal views. So only watch if you can handle it.
We’ve pulled together some clips of the most interesting moments of the night for your viewing pleasure.
Like when Kolodin slammed Republican Rep. Matt Gress for turning against his party by voting to overturn the abortion ban.
Or when he argued against using the term “election denialism” because “it's meant to equate the skepticism of the government with Holocaust denial.” He also suggested all the election lawsuits he has lost are the result of the judges not understanding election law and that a jury should make the final call instead.
Or when Kolodin compared himself to Socrates, but with more hair, when he and Hank talked about the dynamics of giving certain people platforms and the role of the press. This part of the conversation produced one of the lawmaker’s best quotes of the night: “It’s not really for politicians to say what the role of the media ought to be.”
And when Kolodin explained how the left and right often agree on suburban water issues, but diverge with rural groundwater. (But he still wouldn’t tell us why he got booted from the water committee.)
A huge thanks to Kolodin for showing up. He knew what he was getting into and did it anyway. And he was a great sport, even when Hank started shouting “bullshit” at him.
You can geek out on the whole interview here.
Unfortunately, Wi-Fi doesn’t work great in the Valley Bar basement, so our livestreams were intermittent at best.
And that got us thinking… These streamed small-group happy hours have been a blast.
But next month’s guests are kind of a big deal, and we don’t want to limit attendance to a lucky few…
So we’re formally inviting all 10,000+ of you readers to grab a drink — in real life — with Maricopa County Supervisor Clint Hickman and former House Speaker Rusty Bowers.
Mark your calendars and join us on Tuesday, June 11 at 7 p.m. for a live, interactive conversation in Valley Bar’s Music Hall, where we’ll be drinking on stage3 and swapping war stories about life on the frontlines of the battle for democracy.
Hope to see you there!4
What you got to hide?: Republican Rep. Barbara Parker is pushing legislation that would exempt state lawmakers from the open meeting laws that every other public body in the state has to follow, Capitol reporter Howie Fischer writes. The bill also requires public bodies to make room for in-person public comment before making final decisions, but exempts the Legislature from the rule. Last year, legislators excluded themselves from state public records law and allowed themselves to destroy emails after 90 days. The Senate also doesn’t have to give out texts, even those related to legislative business.
You read it here first: The Washington Post picked up the strange saga of Arizona’s U.S. Senate Green Party primary, where both candidates appear to be plants by the major political parties. But by now, neither of the candidates are picking up reporters’ calls.
Casitas for all: Scottsdale Mayor David Ortega penned an op-ed in the Daily Independent blasting lawmakers for passing two housing bills out of the state Senate this week, saying the move “threatens to double the number of short-term rentals on single-family lots.” Ortega noted that Scottsdale is now attempting to crack down on the out-of-control Airbnb scene, despite the restrictions that lawmakers have put on cities, and forcing cities to allow casitas, duplexes and the like would upend those efforts.
Pro-choice Catholics: The New York Times chronicles Arizona Democrats’ attempt to capitalize on shifting views on abortion among Latinas, who are increasingly in favor of abortion rights despite their culture’s Catholic roots.
“I am 23 — why do I have less rights than my abuelita in Mexico?” Melissa Herrera, a Democratic campaign staffer, asked.
Won’t be missed: After getting suspended for failing to show up to work for months, Pima County Constable Oscar Vasquez resigned this week, the Tucson Sentinel’s Jim Nintzel reports. Not showing up for work was only a small part of his problematic behavior — which included unwanted and inappropriate messages to a local woman — since getting elected to the job in 2016. Meanwhile, Tucson officials dumped a bunch of jagged rocks under the I-10 underpass downtown in order to keep homeless people from sleeping there, Arizona Public Media’s Hannah Cree reports.
Crash and burn: Amazon is preparing to roll out delivery drones in Tolleson this year, but they won’t be able to do much for a good chunk of the year, considering the drones overheat at about 104 degrees, Wired reports.
Your vote matters: Our friends at LOOKOUT, Arizona’s best LGBTQ+ news outlet, are in the running for a big grant for local news startups. But they need your help!
It’ll take 10 seconds. Vote for them5 here.
We rely on our subscribers, not grants, to keep the Agenda alive. But you can vote on whether we deserve a micro-grant by clicking this button.
Secretary of State Adrian Fontes created a deepfake of Hank in a prison jumpsuit yesterday and attempted to trick our fellow reporters into believing Hank had been imprisoned for taking bribes.
We think it was retaliation for our fearless reporting of his deepfake record destruction scandal.
Just kidding!
We volunteered to be deepfaked in real-time by CivAI, a nonprofit that makes deepfakes to teach people about AI, at yesterday’s demonstration of the latest “tabletop exercise” that elections officials are conducting ahead of this year’s expected shitstorm of a presidential election.
But Fontes did seem to enjoy the whole thing quite a bit.
And speaking of preparing for a shitstorm of an election, check out this piece that Hank wrote about the 2022 training. Be sure to watch the “fake news” videos that our co-founder Rachel Leingang made for that one.6
Click here to watch Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer get tipsy or here to watch Democratic Rep. Analise Ortiz outdrink Hank.
CORRECTION: Apparently he meant the 2004 election, not the 2000 election with hanging chads.
Though something tells us Bowers might be drinking root beer.
If all 10,977 of you subscribers show up, we’re not gonna have enough chairs. Fair warning.
Which is literally the dumbest way we can imagine to decide who deserves a journalism grant.
The news in those scenarios was made up but that is actually Rachel. Deepfakes weren’t even a concern in 2022. Isn’t that quaint?
While this is not a major thing, I have to say that the only thing that surprised me in the clips from your Kolodin chat was his reference to the (unattributed) George Lakoff line and book title, "Don't Think of an Elephant" - not only that he may have read this book that provides an understanding of some important aspects of messaging, but also that he added "pink" to it. Sort of takes it out of the Republican-elephant metaphor and moves it to drinking (which may have been appropriate given the setting).
Kudos for providing a platform to let political figures speak, as the best way to educate the public is to let them hear the answers to fair questions posed by well-informed reporters - so far, every forum you’ve hosted has been excellent - look forward to hearing from Hickman and Bowers! (another outlet doing great work in this area is the AZCentral’s “The Gaggle” podcast - never thought I would be lauding AZ Central but their interviews are non-partisan and really informative)