We recently wrote about one of Scottsdale’s state representatives, Alexander Kolodin, and his dipping his toes into the waters of influence in the Rio Verde Foothills water crisis. Our hope has been that he steps in as a voice of reason, someone who can bridge the divide between the city and county. Recent developments show that the message seems to have been received, but that he is still not able to completely step out of his own way in order to effectively be that leader.
Rep. Kolodin, in his first term, has stepped up to the plate in a significant way with an elegant potential solution. This article outlines his idea for a standalone water district that would have the ability to negotiate for itself, something that wouldn’t be dependent on a county and city that don’t want to deal with it.
In a positive development, Democratic Representative Laura Terech attended a recent meeting to speak about it. In a rare instance of bipartisanship, in a time when it seems that very few things can bridge the political divide, it is heartening to see that some issues have enough gravitas to warrant reaching across the aisle to get solutions done.
But progress can be easily undone with careless statements, and recent tweets demonstrated that Kolodin still has a lot of work to do before he truly becomes the great negotiator necessary. While this below tweet may be lacking context, it speaks to Kolodin using his words in a rather reckless manner that we would expect more from Wen. Wendy Rogers than a true leader.
Instead of simply ignoring it (or preferably learning a lesson and moving on), Kolodin decided to play a truly baffling anti-Semitic card while quote retweeting that tweet, and looked like a fool in the process.
We have come to expect certain progressives assigning any and all criticism towards bigotry of some sort, but this was truly bizarre and absurd. And worse yet, he replied to the comments, and it didn’t get better.
Representative Kolodin shows some real promise in potentially bridging a deal in the Rio Verde Foothills water crisis. As the above tweets show however, his biggest impediment will be being able to control himself and his own temperament and judgment. Many more outbursts like this and Dem Representatives who have shown the desire to work with him, like Laura Terech, will receive pressure not to, and that would be a shame.