By Alexander Lomax
Alexander Kolodin. Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore
I’d consider myself a fairly reasonable liberal, but more than that, I’m a pretty average voter. I think that the political left has gone too far in a number of different ways. I want leaders who are going to fix problems, not spend their time inventing ones, and if that’s a Republican then they’re going to get my respect (and maybe even my vote). But regardless of the side of the aisle they’re on, grandstanding for attention is simply annoying.
For example, I didn’t begin as a fan of State Representative Joseph Chaplik, as he seemed to be a little too big of a fan of embracing the “culture wars”. But he recently has stepped into his own with a vociferous defense of the rights of the voters regarding the Axon fiasco and their attempts to take away your ability to fight against awful zoning overreach from your local government. He has been willing to take on a corporate bully, and that’s truly commendable.
But when I look at his seatmate, the other Representative from District 3, Alex Kolodin? I don’t see a serious leader. I see someone who is looking for attention.
So what has Kolodin been doing this year? Well he decided to spend political capital on attempting to legalize “weapons of war”. Yep, he sponsored a bill to legalize grenades, rockets, or IEDs, and invoked his religion as a justification for it. Wonderful to think that your unstable neighbor would have been able to legally stockpile grenades if this passed, right? These are the sorts of dimwitted laws that people around the world learn about, that tarnish our reputation and make us less of a suitable tourist destination.
I would say that he’s not serious, but that actually would have been a potentially serious problem.
Then he decided to say “hell no” in response to a bill championed by the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office that would have given strict sentences to people involved in gang assaults. I don’t agree with the heavy-handed nature of the bill, but there was no need to grandstand about it.
Mind you, this is the same guy that was sanctioned and placed on probation by the Arizona Bar for making wild and completely unfounded claims about widespread fraud in recent elections (weird that he’s not making that charge regarding last year’s elections now that the Republicans won…so weird!). And he was also the person who represented the Arizona Republican Party for a spurious suit about the election tabulation machines being improperly tested, which was thrown out.
Rep. Kolodin has proven himself adept at getting attention, like a kid jumping up and down, screaming and waving his hands in the air. But we elect people to lead, not to get attention. I wish Kolodin would act like a leader for once.