Guests - Alex Kolodin, Ned Ryun, Lisa Von-Geldern

Election Integrity: The Push for Reform in Arizona

Representative Alex Kolodin, representing Legislative District 3 in Scottsdale, is leading efforts to reform Arizona's election processes, despite facing roadblocks from Governor Katie Hobbs. His recent election reform bill—aimed at eliminating same-day drop-offs of early ballots—was vetoed by Hobbs, a decision Kolodin believes was influenced by Secretary of State Adrian Fontes.

"Sometimes I see things at the Capitol that make me wonder about whether we all truly want fair and free elections," Kolodin noted. "I think most people who are outside of politics want fair and free elections. And I actually think Hobbs was favorably inclined to sign it until Adrian Fontes got involved and started sending his lobbyists down to put her in a box."

Following the veto, Kolodin pivoted to a resolution that would place the election reform measure directly on the 2026 ballot, bypassing the governor altogether. The resolution has already passed through committee in the Senate under the leadership of Senator Wendy Rogers, chair of the elections committee. It now awaits a final vote on the Senate floor.

"The longer something sits around waiting to go on the board, the more concerned I get," Kolodin said regarding the delay in scheduling the final vote. "The Senate is somewhat an undiscovered country from which no man returns. We never know exactly why they're doing what they're doing."

The proposed reforms center on address verification, a practice Kolodin points to as key in Florida's successful clean-up of their voter rolls. "The most important component of the bill, in my view, is address verification," he explained. "We know that Adrian Fontes has not been complying with his obligations as Secretary of State to make sure our state is keeping clean voter rolls."

Kolodin, who has sued Fontes over public records requests related to voter roll maintenance, expressed frustration with the current situation: "Even months after the court order, he's really failed to produce any significant documents as to what he's done to make sure that the state is cleaning its voter rolls."

The consequences of poor address verification are significant, according to Kolodin. "We have all of these extra ballots going out, showing up in people's mailboxes, pissing them off because they go, 'Who's this guy? He doesn't live here.' Faith and confidence in the system [is damaged]."

He pointed to recent discoveries that raise questions about the integrity of voter rolls: "We just discovered recently that there's a strip club here in Maricopa County where a couple dozen people are having their ballots delivered. I highly doubt that a couple dozen people live in a strip club."

The scale of the problem is substantial. Kolodin noted that Justin Heap, the new Maricopa County Recorder, "just removed well over a hundred thousand people from the rolls who shouldn't have been on the rolls in one county."

For Kolodin, the issue isn't just about changing laws but enforcing existing ones: "A lot of our problem is not what the law is, but the fact that the law is not being followed as robustly as it could be followed."

The Axon Controversy in Scottsdale

Beyond election reform, Kolodin is working to mediate a conflict between the city of Scottsdale and Axon, a technology company that develops products for law enforcement. The company has proposed building a development that would include 1,900 apartments, a plan that has faced significant community resistance.

"I just had a meeting yesterday afternoon with the Mayor of Scottsdale and the CEO of Axon and his attorney," Kolodin shared. "I think that people are finally talking to each other and the right conversations are being had."

Before engaging in these negotiations, Kolodin put the matter to a vote among his precinct committeemen (PCs). "I went and put it to a vote in my PCs because I go, 'They know better what the community wants than I do.' They voted 90/10 against what Axon was proposing, which is a pretty resounding result."

However, the PCs also expressed a desire for compromise: "A lot of them also told me, 'Both of these options suck. We don't want to lose Axon but we can't accept 1,900 apartments. Why can't the city and Axon just come together and make a deal because that's what's good for everybody?'"

Kolodin's approach exemplifies his view of representative government: "They always talk to me and I'm just like, 'Well, you've got to convince my voters that what you want is a good thing for them.'"

Budget Battles and Agency Oversight

As a member of the legislature working on the state budget, Kolodin is focused on fiscal accountability, particularly regarding the use of taxpayer funds by the Attorney General and Secretary of State.

"I've been working on a number of things. One of the things I'm obviously working on is the budget and trying to make sure that we're not leaving around stray money for our Attorney General and Secretary of State to abuse," Kolodin explained. "Trying to put some reasonable safeguards on their expenditures and trying to strip out some of this excess that they're just using to cause trouble."

Kolodin believes this approach aligns with voter sentiment: "I think one of the things that the people made very clear to us in the 2024 election is that they want to see government streamlined, more responsible, and less used for political manipulation and abuse."

He is also working to eliminate the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission (ACJC), which he describes as "a massive data harvesting bureaucracy that lobbies the legislature to let them use taxpayer money." According to Kolodin, the ACJC has been involved in censorship efforts: "The chair of their board is the guy who's responsible for the Arizona Supreme Court's Disinformation Task Force, which was part of CISA's entire censorship apparatus, getting stuff taken off social media, telling all the judges things are Russian disinformation."

While the ACJC's director has resigned since Kolodin began his efforts, he finds it telling that "the chairman of the board, who is the guy who's all tied in with CISA" has not stepped down, suggesting to Kolodin "who's really been in charge of that organization the whole time."

Confronting Budget Mismanagement

Kolodin has been vocal about Governor Hobbs' fiscal management, particularly regarding a reported $341 million in misspent funds. "One of the ways that she blew the money on her little Katie Hobbs shopping spree was that she dramatically expanded some of the social programs that we have here in the state without asking the legislature for permission," he explained.

"Since we only budgeted for the programs and the scope that we had approved, when you decide that you're going to expand those programs a whole bunch, you run into a hole in your budget. But that's par for the course for Katie Hobbs."

Regarding the ongoing budget negotiations, Kolodin believes Hobbs will try to extend the legislative session as long as possible. "The longer you stay in session, the more money there's to spend in the budget. And Katie Hobbs loves to spend money."

He also highlighted what he sees as a problematic incentive structure for legislators from outside Maricopa County. After the first 100 days of the legislative session, these members continue to receive a per diem of about $130 per day, creating "this incentive on the part of a few rural legislators... that they want to do everything they possibly can to stretch out the session as long as possible because they make significantly more money when that happens."

This combination of the governor's spending preferences and these legislative incentives "always leads to this long and agonizing" budget process, according to Kolodin.

The Administrative State and Constitutional Crisis

Ned Ryan, founder and CEO of American Majority, has released a documentary titled "American Leviathan" that examines what he describes as the unconstitutional growth of the administrative state in America.

Ryun traces the origins of the administrative state to the progressive era under President Woodrow Wilson. "The progressive intellectuals—Woodrow Wilson, Robert Lafollette, Herbert Crowley, Theodore Roosevelt... Frank Goodman, John Burgess—were vehemently opposed to a rights-based government," Ryun explained. "They felt that the separation of powers was a bug, that somehow the founders in 1787 got it wrong."

According to Ryun, "the whole point of the progressive movement... was to destroy the moral and political authority of the constitution and the constitutional republic and in its place to erect this massive administrative state."

This administrative state, Ryun argues, operates largely outside the confines of the Constitution: "Progressives at the very beginning of the administrative state... wanted to separate it out from any political accountability. They wanted these unelected bureaucrats to do the real governing and legislating."

Ryun contends that Congress has been complicit in this transformation: "One of the great villains of the 20th century, if we're being honest, has been Congress itself. When Congress abdicates its role and hands over to these unelected bureaucrats in the Article 2 executive branch... we're going to sub-delegate our legislative authority to you of our own volition."

This arrangement benefits many in Congress, Ryun suggests: "Most members of Congress find it deeply convenient because they send over these four and five thousand page bills that are framing out the bill. And then the unelected bureaucrats with their statutes and regulations do the fine print there and do the actual governing."

The current political moment, with President Trump's administration actively seeking to dismantle parts of the administrative state, represents "a singular moment in American history," according to Ryun. He advocates for Trump to "channel Woodrow Wilson's approach" ironically by inverting Wilson's philosophy: "When Wilson said, shortly before he took the White House, 'We are not bound to adhere to the doctrines held by the signers of the Declaration of Independence. We are as free as they were to make and unmake government.' We should have the same approach. We are not bound to adhere to the progressives' ideals. We're not bound to adhere to their administrative state. We are as free as they were."

Ryun also addressed the ongoing judicial resistance to the Trump administration's efforts, particularly from district court judges issuing stays against executive actions. "92% of these stays have been by Obama-appointed leftist judges. And this is the next iteration of lawfare against Donald Trump," Ryan stated.

This creates a potential constitutional crisis, in Ryun's view: "If the Supreme Court and John Roberts do not step up to this occasion and put in massive guardrails on these lower level judges, I think at some point there is going to be a constitutional crisis brought on by the Article 3 branch because they are overstepping their bounds."

Ryan suggests a fundamental question needs to be answered: "Does the head of the Article 2 executive branch have the right to hire and fire whoever it wants to? Does he have the ability to set agenda for anything inside the Article 2 branch?"

He proposes that Trump "fire just randomly a couple hundred thousand GS-12 and 13s" to force the issue to the Supreme Court, where a definitive ruling on executive authority could be established.

Ryan expressed concern about Chief Justice John Roberts' recent comments, suggesting Roberts "doesn't seem to understand what's at stake here" and that through "a lack of political courage and a lack of trying to restore constitutional order," Roberts might "actually undermine it and in many ways destroy the legitimacy of the Article 3 branch."

As alternative approaches, Ryun suggested Congress could exercise its constitutional authority to "defund those courts" or impeach judges who exceed their authority. He also advocated for Trump to "channel Andrew Jackson" by essentially refusing to comply with unconstitutional judicial orders: "Jackson said, 'He has made his decision, now let him enforce it.' I think you have to have that kind of same mentality from Donald Trump."

Food Industry and Health Challenges

Lisa Von-Geldern, a precinct committeeman and health advocate, highlighted concerns about the food industry's role in America's health crisis and the pharmaceutical industry's influence on healthcare.

Von-Geldern discussed legislation recently introduced in Iowa that "would strip vaccine manufacturers of some of their liability protection for injuries in the state" specifically for "design defects" rather than manufacturing flaws. She expressed hope that similar legislation could be introduced in Arizona.

On food industry issues, Von-Geldern cited a book titled "The Unholy Trinity" by Daniel Trevor that examines "how carbs, sugars, and oils make us fat, sick, and addicted and how to escape their grip."

She shared alarming statistics: "In 1930, the U.S. obesity rate was 1%. Today it's almost 50%. Never before has a population gotten so fat and so sick so fast."

Von-Geldern attributed many health problems to modern wheat production methods that have allegedly made wheat products addictive by binding with brain receptors: "What they've done in that process is made it as addictive as sugar or heroin or cocaine... And that's why you can't stop with one handful of Cheez-Its or one honey graham cracker."

She advocated for a primarily meat-based diet, challenging conventional nutritional wisdom: "Did you know that people with high cholesterol live the longest? Back in the 70s, a normal cholesterol level was 300. Now all the doctors think it has to be 100. Why? Because Big Pharma wants to sell you a statin."

Von-Geldern connected these health issues to broader political concerns about administrative overreach: "All the sickness and illness... for me, it's a spiritual battle, in a way, because I feel like the big corporations and the people in charge have forgotten their neighbor. We're supposed to love our neighbor, not extract resources from them."