Rep Kolodin doesn't want this public
He manifested this story. (More legislative records below.)
In January, freshman Republican State Rep. Alexander Kolodin hit reply all on an email to House members and staff complaining that he didn’t like any of the photos Timon Harper Photography took of him for legislative photo day.
In the email he inadvertently sent to everyone, he wrote, “These are all awful and will be used in hit pieces on me. I'll take the first one if I have to for the historical record but I'd ask that it not be posted online or used in any press releases. I can provide a different headshot for online positing.”
So of course I requested the headshot Kolodin, the former Cyber Ninjas and AZGOP attorney with a proclivity for filing frivolous election lawsuits who is currently under a two-year long State Bar investigation, did not want online.
Here it is online forever.
As is the case with any reply-all situation to more than 100 people, there were a couple of good responses.
Rep. Justin Wilmeth wrote what everyone was likely thinking.
The House GOP comms account forwarded the Yellow Sheet Report from Jan 26 to Kolodin because the political tip sheet was the first to mention Kolodin’s reply all, but did not have the photo in question.
Kolodin wasn’t the only Republican representative who didn’t want their legislative photo used online. Joining him was Rep. Jacqueline Parker who is using a photo that is at least a few years old.
Compared to the photo taken of her in 2021. She claimed she was too busy for picture day.
I have made a handful of records requests with the Legislature as of late that didn’t yield any records or very few that wouldn’t be enough for posts by themselves, but are worthy of writing briefly about. So here are those:
For starters, the joint elections committee chaired by antisemite Wendy Rogers in the Senate and Kolodin in the House last month had Republicans in both chambers quickly distancing themselves from the ridiculous circus that once again put Arizona in a negative spotlight regarding election matters. (Arizona already embarrasses itself enough due to bullshit election chaos because of state lawmakers; just give up the charade already.)
House Speaker Ben Toma blamed Senate President Warren Petersen for the Senate hosting the meeting and putting Rogers in charge (it honestly makes sense given Petersen’s ties to the Cyber Ninjas shit show in 2021 and the fact he was one of three people to vote “no” on censuring Rogers last year only to later appoint her to chair the elections committee). Petersen wasn’t having it and replied to Axios Phoenix reporter Jeremy Duda’s above tweet saying, “Because the speaker requested it. And it was co-chaired not chaired. Andrew should speak to people before he speculates.”
The House records attorney told me there were no records reflecting this conversation, which could mean likely one of two things.
The conversation took place in person (the speculation here is House leadership granted Rep. Liz Harris the opportunity for this circus in exchange for her vote swap on the DOA continuation budget that was guaranteed to be vetoed as soon as it arrived on Governor Hobbs’ desk –– it was indeed). Or
The conversation never happened and Petersen lied.
In fact, there were no records at all between Toma and Petersen re: the Feb 23 elections committee meeting.
Additionally, I requested records within the Senate’s possession about what the Committee on Director Nominations had on Hobbs’ initial pick to run the Department of Child Services, Matthew Stewart. Stewart promptly resigned from the role before his confirmation hearing and Sen Jake Hoffman, the Director Nomination chairman1 and 2020 fake elector, claimed his committee was responsible for the resignation. Hobbs denied the committee had anything to do with it.
There’s still a lot we don’t know, but the records request turned up empty-handed.
Lastly, I asked for records from the Senate about creating the committee to vet Hobbs’ director appointments since most of the Senate didn’t seem aware of the plans to create a new committee mid-session.
It appears the only people aware of the committee before its official announcement was Petersen and the three Republicans on the committee: Hoffman, TJ Shope and Sine Kerr, plus the majority’s senior staff.
The only record turned over was an exchange between Hoffman and Senate GOP communications director Kim Quintero about a specific quote attributed to Hoffman that he thought was “a little underwhelming.”
The original Hoffman quote was:
“Political games that threaten public safety are a dangerous strategy for any elected official to participate in. This is unacceptable behavior from the Governor,” said Chairman Jake Hoffman. “We currently have people charged with overseeing state agencies, which serve our most vulnerable populations, who have not been properly vetted by the Senate, as prescribed by statute.”
His updated quote is below:
“Katie Hobbs’ apparent refusal to follow the law when it comes to submitting her agency director nominees for senate confirmation is unacceptable, and demonstrates her willingness to play political games with the lives and safety of Arizona citizens.” said Chairman Jake Hoffman. “We currently have people charged with overseeing state agencies, which serve our most vulnerable populations, who have not been properly vetted by the Senate, as prescribed by Arizona law.”
I don’t think enough people (or anyone?) have mentioned how Hoffman led a “dark money” PAC on behalf of Kari Lake during the 2022 election cycle and now he’s the lawmaker standing in the way of Governor Hobbs filling out her cabinet. Put America First is the PAC and Hoffman’s company 1Ten handled pretty much everything, according to campaign finance records.
I love when people make a huge thing out of nothing. I get not liking photos of oneself but when it's photo day, you kinda know what you're in for?