Guests - Alex Kolodin, Rodney Glassman
The SAVE Act Is on the Ballot, the Session Is Over, and the Most Important Race in Arizona Is Now Wide Open
Monday on Winn Tucson opened on rain — unusual for Tucson in mid-June — and moved into the most consequential news in Arizona electoral politics in years. The legislative session ended at four in the morning. Arizona is now the first state in the country to fully conform to the Trump tax cuts. An Arizona version of the SAVE Act will go before voters in November. And for the state Senate president running for attorney general, a law that's been on the books for 40 years may have just become the most dangerous document in the Republican primary.
Alex Kolodin: Four in the Morning, the AZ SAVE Act, $1.4 Billion in Tax Relief, and Why He Was Negotiating While Giving a Floor Speech
Alex Kolodin — LD-3 state representative and Republican candidate for Arizona Secretary of State — came on directly out of the session's final hours, which stretched until 4 a.m. on the last day. The headline he carried was not the hour. It was what they got done.
The AZ SAVE Act: Where DC Failed, Arizona Delivered
The single accomplishment that matters most to Kolodin — and that he said without hesitation represents the highlight of both his legislative and legal career — is the passage of HCR 2001, which Arizona voters will now decide on this November. People are already calling it the AZ SAVE Act. The technical name is the FAST Act. Either way, what it delivers is the core of what the national SAVE Act could not: government-issued photo ID for all ballots cast in Arizona.
"To be able to tell the people of Arizona where DC Republicans failed, Arizona Republicans delivered — and to be able to be the prime sponsor of the act that made those words true. That is really the highlight of my legislative career."
It was not easy. It came down to the wire. On the floor of the legislature, Kolodin was giving his formal speech on the measure while simultaneously negotiating with the final holdout vote.
"That's why I did not give such a great floor speech — because I was negotiating with the final holdout while I was giving my floor speech."
His primary opponent, he confirmed, had proxies working against it even while it was being voted on.
The constitutional ballot referral means this is no longer a legislative question. The voters of Arizona will weigh in directly. Kolodin's polling data shows that when the question is asked honestly, voter ID is an 80-20 issue. Every demographic supports it. The outlier, as he put it, is his actual opponent — Adrian Fontes.
The Budget: $1.4 Billion Back in Arizona Pockets
The legislative session also delivered what no other state has yet managed: Arizona is now fully conforming to the Trump tax cuts — the first state in the country to do so. What that means in practical terms: $1.4 billion returned to Arizona taxpayers over the relevant period, with no requirement to refile state taxes.
No tax on tips. No tax on overtime. Tax relief for Arizona small businesses. Arizona's Republican caucus delivered all of it despite months of obstruction from a governor who wanted the cuts cut in half.
"Even the reddest of the red states with Republican trifectas — nobody else has done it. But in Arizona, our Republicans are of such a high caliber that we managed to do what nobody else has done."
Arizona is currently 47th in the country in job creation. The tax relief for small businesses — the economic engine of the state — is designed to address exactly that. And like the national big beautiful bill, Kolodin argued, the state version will produce an economic boom if Republicans win the right offices to implement it wisely.
The EPM Lawsuit: In Federal Court Tuesday
The next morning, Winn would be in federal court as the plaintiff in the Oversight Project's lawsuit against Adrian Fontes and Attorney General Chris Mays over the Elections Procedures Manual — specifically eight provisions that Kolodin described as violations of both the U.S. and Arizona Constitutions.
The provisions under challenge target law enforcement officers who would vote in uniform, restrict what election workers can be criticized for, ban audible electioneering near polling places (which effectively prohibits Election Day protest in city centers), and create a mechanism for removing observers for "frivolous" challenges with no reinstatement path.
"He's trying to ban protests on election day. He's trying to disenfranchise members of law enforcement and prevent them from voting. He's trying to ban criticism of him or any other elections officials and not just ban, but make it a criminal offense."
This is not the first time Fontes has tried this. He tried it before and lost — in front of a panel of Ninth Circuit judges, every one of them appointed by Democratic presidents. He is trying it again.
When Kolodin is secretary of state, he said without equivocation, he wants as many protests on Election Day as people want to have. He welcomes criticism. He will not be perfect in office, and accountability requires that people be able to speak freely without fear of criminal charges.
The Voter Roll Problem: Justin Heap Was Listed as an Independent
Kolodin delivered a piece of ground-level intelligence that every Republican voter in Pima County needs to hear before ballots arrive.
Thousands of Republicans across Pima County have been removed from the voter rolls — even people who vote consistently, cycle after cycle. This is the same tactic that was deployed in 2024, which is precisely why President Trump changed his guidance to encourage voting early in person rather than waiting for Election Day.
"If you vote early in person, first, you should check your voter registration right now. But if for whatever reason you don't — and you go vote early in person — at least you caught the problem before election day."
The canonical example: Justin Heap — the Maricopa County recorder who took Fontes to court over the recorder's stripped authority — didn't find out he had been listed as an independent until a constituent called him. A recorder seeking the Republican nomination had been switched to independent in the voter rolls without his knowledge.
"He goes, I'm a what? And he goes, checks his voter registration. And sure enough, they've got him listed as an independent."
Check your registration right now at the county recorder's website. If you've been removed, if you've been switched, find out before Election Day. The window to fix it is closing.
On third-party voter registration mailers — the kind with Pennsylvania postage permits that show up in Pima County mailboxes — Kolodin was direct: they are not the appropriate channel. Go straight to the county recorder's website. Third-party voter registration organizations are legal, but they are not reliable.
"I would go straight to your county recorder. That is the horse's mouth."
The Road to the White House Runs Through This Office
Kolodin closed with the argument he has made consistently since announcing his candidacy — and that is now more urgent given everything the session produced.
Arizona is the most consequential swing state in the country for 2028. The secretary of state is the chief elections officer. The person who holds that office determines whether Arizona has free and fair elections for president.
"The road to the White House runs directly through that office. The Arizona secretary of state is the person who decides whether Arizona is going to have free and fair elections for president."
He characterized Fontes as a cartel lawyer whose "totally un-American tactics" include trying to scare ICE agents away from the polls by making voting in uniform a potential criminal offense. Law enforcement knows that a criminal charge, even an unjust one, can end a career. And if that threat — real or implied — keeps law enforcement from voting, that's exactly the outcome Fontes is pursuing.
Campaign: alexforaz.com
Rodney Glassman: A Trump Repost, the Senate President Who Called Luke Air Force Base, Rudy Giuliani Under Arizona Indictment, and What Chris Mays Is Actually Doing With Your Tax Dollars
Rodney Glassman — Lieutenant Colonel, United States Air Force JAG Corps Reserve; candidate for Arizona Attorney General; husband to Sasha, his law school sweetheart of 17-plus years; and the only candidate in either the Republican primary or the general election who has ever prosecuted a criminal — came on with news from a weekend that included a presidential repost, a call from a former political opponent turned supporter, and a primary opponent who apparently called Luke Air Force Base to try to disprove his military record.
The Weekend: Sonny Borelli, Then President Trump
The Mojave County Supervisor and former Arizona Senate Majority Whip, Sonny Borelli — a retired Marine, a decorated veteran, and one of the most trusted figures in Arizona's MAGA movement — endorsed Glassman on Saturday.
Borelli's statement: "I endorse Lieutenant Colonel Rodney Glassman for Arizona Attorney General because we need an experienced attorney and seasoned prosecutor to defeat Chris Mays, to run the largest law office in the state, and to fight for Arizona's rural communities and secure our elections."
On Sunday — Trump's birthday, the day of the UFC fights at the White House, the day of the Iran deal — President Trump reposted Borelli's endorsement on Truth Social.
"On the president's birthday to be reposting one of our endorsements and cutting a deal with Iran and celebrating his birthday. Just think about that."
Winn's read on what the repost means: Trump reposted because he trusts Sonny Borelli. A man who served as majority whip under Glassman's primary opponent — Warren Peterson — looked at that opponent's record and decided to endorse the other guy. That is a meaningful signal.
What the Session Revealed About the Primary
Now that the legislative session has ended with sine die, the dynamic Glassman had been navigating for months has changed. His opponent — the sitting Senate president — had, in Glassman's description, been holding budget line items over the heads of legislators who might otherwise have endorsed the Glassman campaign.
"The legislature couldn't hurt Mojave County anymore," is how Glassman put the shift — meaning the legislative session's end removed the leverage that had been suppressing endorsements.
The endorsements coming in now: Byron Lewis, mayor of Snowflake. The mayor of Show Low. The mayor of Scottsdale. Mayors across Arizona who want an attorney general who has actually practiced law. And Billy Cloud, the Cochise County Recorder, who endorsed Glassman specifically for his commitment to protecting elections.
The Military Record Attack That Backfired
At a debate two weeks before this conversation, Glassman's primary opponent apparently attempted to challenge his military service. The method: Peterson called Luke Air Force Base, asked for Rodney Glassman by first name, and when the enlisted paralegal who answered didn't know who he was, concluded that Glassman had fabricated his record.
Glassman was not subtle about why this matters beyond the personal insult.
"Think about the danger of having someone as the attorney general who literally thinks the way to investigate something is to crank call an active duty military base and harass young enlisted paralegals by confusing them."
An attorney general must investigate. They must gather facts methodically. They must understand chain of command, jurisdictional authority, and how to pursue evidence through proper channels. An active-duty military base does not maintain a searchable directory of reserve JAG officers at their primary duty station. Any competent attorney or investigator would know this. Peterson's method of inquiry is, in Glassman's framing, exactly the kind of investigative reasoning that should terrify anyone who wants Arizona's election fraud cases handled competently.
The general at Luke Air Force Base does know Glassman's name. Glassman is a lieutenant colonel. The general is the general. One does not answer to the other. Basic military structure.
"There are 500,000 veterans in Arizona, not counting their families. And for the state Senate president to not just call public affairs, or the general — General Berklin is the general, and I'm a lieutenant colonel — but to not just do that and instead to do what he did, that's just insane and disgusting."
Kris Mayes: 42 Lawsuits, 60 Investigators in Palm Beach, Rudy Giuliani Under Indictment
Glassman made the case — directly requested by Winn — for why Chris Mays is so dangerous that every Republican in Arizona should treat the general election as a binary choice of historic importance.
Kris Mayes has filed 42 lawsuits against the Trump administration in 16 months. His campaign website, RodneyGlassman.com, has a donation button on the page that adjusts each time she files a new one — currently asking for $1 per lawsuit from every Republican who wants to stop her.
But the lawsuits against Trump are almost incidental compared to what else she is doing:
She is suing the seven largest apartment owners in the state of Arizona because she does not believe landlords should be able to set their own rental prices.
She is suing Arizona farmers because she does not like their water rights or the crops they grow.
She filed a lawsuit against the Hefty garbage bag company because she objected to their box design.
She is using 60 gun-carrying, badge-carrying investigators — investigators who should be protecting seniors in Green Valley from fraudulent roofing contractors and unlicensed solar companies — and instead sending them to Palm Beach, Florida to harass Rudy Giuliani, the 85-year-old former mayor of New York, who now lives in West Palm Beach and is under indictment by the Arizona Attorney General over the 2020 presidential election.
"We have an attorney general right now who's suing the seven largest apartment owners in the state because she doesn't think that landlords should be able to decide how much they charge their tenants. She's suing farmers because she doesn't believe that water rights are property rights. She's suing the Hefty garbage bag company because she doesn't like the way they design their boxes."
The original 2020 alternate electors indictments were kicked out by judges who found the cases meritless. Mays re-indicted them. She has her own grand jury, and she has made clear that the legal outcome of the first attempt is not a constraint on the second.
Meanwhile, the senior in Green Valley who has two contractors with a ladder show up claiming to need to inspect her roof — and who walks away $8,000 lighter after paying people who aren't licensed contractors and had no intention of doing real work — has no attorney general looking out for her.
"Instead of focusing on protecting our seniors and our consumers, she's sending those investigators to Palm Beach, Florida so that they can harass the 85-year-old Rudy Giuliani."
The 2006 Pima County Election and What an AG Should Actually Do
Glassman used the 2006 Pima County Regional Transportation Authority election as the model for what an attorney general does when election integrity questions arise.
The polling showed the RTA election wasn't supposed to pass. It passed by a small margin. Democrats in Southern Arizona cried election fraud. They called the attorney general. The attorney general — exercising exactly the authority that office is supposed to exercise — took rental vans to Pima County, secured all the ballots, maintained chain of custody, brought the materials up to Maricopa County, and had then-recorder Helen Purcell conduct a complete hand recount of the entire Pima County election.
The results were unchanged. No fraud was found. But what did change was everything.
"The attorney general was able to provide voters with confidence in the elections."
That is the job. When there are credible questions, the attorney general investigates. They don't suppress the questions. They don't file lawsuits against the people asking. They bring the full authority of the office to bear on finding the truth, and they make the results public so that voters can trust the outcome.
When Glassman asks Republicans, Democrats, and Independents across the state whether they believe Arizona currently enforces its own election laws — no hands go up. The job the attorney general should be doing is not being done.
A Caller From 2007: Lori Oyen's Endorsement Live on Air
Near the end of the segment, a live caller joined: Lori Oyen, Glassman's Republican opponent from a 2007 Tucson City Council race, when he was a 29-year-old first-time candidate.
Her message was direct and substantive. She raised the five-year licensing requirement in state statute — a law enacted by the Arizona legislature approximately 40 years ago, mirrored in many other states including Florida, requiring that the attorney general have five years of experience as a practicing attorney.
"One of the subsets for attorney general — you have to have a law license for at least five years. That would disqualify your opponent, would it not?"
Glassman's response was precise: the requirement is in statute, not in the Constitution. It is a legislative enactment. And given that Mays has demonstrated she will file any lawsuit, win or lose, for fundraising purposes — and given that an article in the Capitol Times has already confirmed this is exactly what she plans to do — the risk of nominating a candidate whose eligibility can be litigated by the opposition is not theoretical. It is a documented strategy.
"There's one woman in the state of Arizona who loves filing lawsuits and doesn't care if she wins. Who is that? Chris Mays. And she'll use it for a fundraiser."
Winn's observation for listeners: this is not about personal attacks. It is about electability and competence. No perfect candidate exists. The questions that matter are: who is most qualified to do the actual job, and who is most capable of winning in November? An election where the Republican nominee's eligibility is being litigated by the Democratic incumbent redirects the entire campaign from policy to process — and the policy arguments for replacing Mays are the ones that win votes.
Glassman's response to Oyen: "You have made my week. The first call I'm making after we hang up is to my then-girlfriend, now-wife, Sasha."
The DCS Issue and What He Will Do for Children
With minutes remaining, Winn raised the issue she called the most important function of the attorney general's office: DCS, the foster care system, child welfare. It is broken.
Glassman was brief but pointed. The least experienced superior court judges get the most important assignment — family court. That is not an accident. It is the default of an underpowered, under-prioritized system.
"We need an attorney general who cares about families and we need an attorney general who cares about kids. I will be that attorney general."
He comes to Thursday's Milley's House event in Tucson. He needs yard signs deployed across Southern Arizona. The race is competitive. The primary is in five weeks.
RodneyGlassman.com — the $1-per-lawsuit button is on the donate page.
Winn Tucson airs Monday through Friday, 9 to 11 a.m., on KVOI 1030 The Voice. Tuesday: Winn is in federal court with the Oversight Project. A guest host fills in. Wednesday: China Watch Wednesday.
Check your voter registration now: go to the Pima County Recorder's website or my.arizona.vote. Early ballots drop June 24th. Primary: July 21st. Last day to register: June 22nd.
AZ SAVE Act (HCR 2001) will appear on the November general election ballot. Vote yes.
Alex Kolodin for Secretary of State: alexforaz.com | Rodney Glassman for Attorney General: RodneyGlassman.com