Welcome to the Thunderdome.
After a fiery debate between the two candidates for Arizona’s Secretary of State, incumbent Adrian Fontes captured the night’s pugilistic event in one perfect phrase: “American politics has been a bloodsport for 250 years.”
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Throughout the nearly hour-long debate, Democrat Fontes and his opponent, Republican Rep. Alexander Kolodin threw metaphorical jabs at each other. But at point point, the tension nearly spiraled into an all-out-brawl.
In his one-minute-long opening statement at Wednesday night’s debate, Fontes used at least 18 of those 60 seconds to call Kolodin a liar. He spoke directly to camera to inform voters about the Arizona State Bar placing Kolodin on probation for 18 months due to his involvment in the fake electors case. He then directed voters to an active blog called AlexLies.com. Users krakenslyer and Raspberry Rosé added live fact checks throughout the night.
Fontes set the tone with his opening salvo. Kolodin upped the ante with his counterattack.
Only 11 second into his opening statement at the debate hosted by Clean Elections and the Arizona Media Association, Kolodin fired back. He called Arizona’s elections a “national embarrassment” and blamed Fontes for that characterization. Kolodin claimed that Fontes “doesn’t know how to follow the law,” and cited Phoenix New Times’ reporting that Fontes was in a high-speed chase with Arizona State University Police as a 19-year-old college student as proof.
Unlike the Arizona Attorney General’s debate, actual policy regarding the responsibilities of the office were discussed, and then some.
The two men debated over the use of the controversial federal SAVE system. Kolodin said he’d use it, but develop the program internally. Fontes argued sharing unredacted voter data with the federal government was a violation of voters’ privacy rights. Kolodin, the sponsor of Prop. 144, argued that it would expand voter access.
Fontes disagreed, arguing that it would eliminate Arizona’s popular mail-in voting system. Kolodin promised election results night of. Fontes said that that wasn’t feasible under Arizona’s current system since it would require more state funding. The two candidates found one issue that they actually on. They both agreed that cybersecurity and artificial intelligence agents are a threat to election security.
There was plenty of material for a election administration wonk to geek out at, but the majority of the debate perhaps would have been better suited for a lowbrow “The Real Housewives” fan.
One of the most intense exchanges happened after Kolodin’s repeated statements calling Fontes a “lawyer for the Sinaloa cartel.” As Kolodin criticized Fontes for removing felons from the voter rolls, he slid in another dig. “Exactly what’d you’d expect from the lawyer for the Sinaloa cartel,” Kolodin said, before returning to his argument.
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In 2011, Fontes represented Manuel Fabian Celis-Acosta, an alleged drug trafficker who had ties to a Mexican drug cartel, according to reporting by the Los Angeles Times at the time. Fontes defended his time as a public defender in the Arizona federal district court and said he was “assigned to do the job of protecting the 4th, 5th and 6th Amendments.”
That didn’t stop Kolodin from repeating the line. Fontes turned to his opponent and said, “If you say Sinaloa cartel lawyer one more time, we’re going to have a personal problem, Mr. Kolodin.”
Fontes spoke directly at his opponent and talked him down. Kolodin started directly into the camera as a small smile appeared across his face. “You know that that’s a big fat lie,” Fontes continued. “And you keep pushing it for the wrong reasons. That kind of baiting is unnecessary and unprofessional.”
“Threatening to jump me is unprofessional,” Kolodin interjected, still not looking in Fontes’ direction. “I didn’t threaten to jump you,” Fontes responded. “That’s what I would expect from the lawyer of the Sinaloa cartel,” Kolodin repeated.
“What do you want me to do here, Alex?” Fontes asked. “You have no character, and you’re lying.”
The moderators redirected the candidates, but not for long. Twenty-two minutes later, despite answering a question about speeding up election results, Kolodin once again called Fontes a “Sinaloa cartel lawyer.” Fontes replied, “It’s such weak sauce for him to keep going to this cartel thing,” adding, “cut it out.”
Fontes referenced Kolodin’s earlier comments regarding his ASU arrest, adding that he “screwed up,” but shot back with “this guy got stopped twice by Scottsdale publicly drunk after he was an attorney,” he said.
With Kolodin declining to speak to the media in the spin room after the debate, the messiness ended on the debate floor. Fontes defended his debate strategy and said policy-focused debate wasn’t possible with Kolodin behind the other podium. The debate was, alas, bloodless, but it got as close as a statewide fight for political office could get to the real thing.
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