Arizona Republicans introduced a constitutional amendment proposal yesterday (Monday) that seeks to help end the chaos and mismanagement in the state’s elections.
“Arizonans are tired of excuses and chaos on Election Day. The Arizona Secure Elections Act gives voters clear rules, strong identification standards, and the confidence that only citizens are taking part in our elections,” bill sponsor and GOP Rep. Alexander Kolodin said in a statement. “These are straightforward reforms that put voters first. They ensure our elections run on time, follow the law, and earn the public’s trust.”
Be informed, not misled.
Arizona State Representative Alexander Kolodin, Chair of the House Committee on Election Integrity and Florida-style Voting Systems, has introduced House Concurrent Resolution 2001, the Arizona Secure Elections Act, a comprehensive election-integrity measure that strengthens voter identification requirements, enhances the security of mail voting, and bans foreign money from influencing Arizona elections.
HCR2001 will be considered during the legislative session beginning in January. Once approved by the Legislature, it will appear on the next general-election ballot.
The Arizona Secure Elections Act includes the following reforms:
- One citizen, one vote: Only U.S. citizens may vote in Arizona elections.
- Foreign-money ban: Contributions from foreign individuals or corporations to any candidate or ballot measure will be prohibited.
- Stronger voter ID: Voters must provide government-issued identification when casting a ballot.
- Early-voting deadline: All early ballots must be cast by 7:00 p.m. the Friday before Election Day.
- No ballots after polls close: Votes may not be cast or accepted after the official close of polls on Election Day.
- Access to in-person voting: Every voter must have the option to vote in person at a convenient polling location.
- Mail-ballot verification: Voters using mail ballots must confirm their preferred ballot-delivery address each election year.
“Arizonans are tired of excuses and chaos on Election Day,” Representative Kolodin said. “The Arizona 'Secure Elections Act' gives voters clear rules, strong identification standards, and the confidence that only citizens are taking part in our elections. These are straightforward reforms that put voters first. They ensure our elections run on time, follow the law, and earn the public’s trust. I look forward to sending it to the ballot so the people of Arizona can make it the law.”
The "dark money" is the rest of the story.
Via The Federalist:
The proposed constitutional amendment further includes a provision prohibiting “contributions from any foreign person or foreign corporation to any Arizona candidate or ballot measure.” The provision appears to be aimed at foreign nationals such as Hansjörg Wyss, a Swiss leftist whose Berger Action Fund has pumped millions of dollars into the U.S.-based Sixteen Thirty Fund.
Operating within the left-wing Arabella Advisors “dark money” network, the Wyss-backed Sixteen Thirty Fund is notorious for shelling out millions to Democrat-aligned organizations involved in statewide initiative and constitutional amendment campaigns. According to an October 2024 report by Americans for Public Trust, for example, the group spent “at least” $1.25 million in support of a proposal seeking to enshrine a constitutional “right” to abortion into the Arizona Constitution.
The measure ultimately passed, with 61.6% of voters supporting the amendment and 38.4% opposing.
Arabella Advisors manages a network of seven nonprofits that often raise over $1 billion in combined annual revenues by serving as incubators, accelerators, and pass-through funders for a wide range of nonprofits and donors focused on left-leaning political activism. The “seven sisters” of the Arabella Network, as of 2025, are the New Venture Fund, the Sixteen Thirty Fund, the Hopewell Fund, the Windward Fund, the North Fund, the Telescope Fund, and the Impetus Fund. From 2006 to 2023, these organizations generated combined revenues of $9.2 billion and expenditures of $7.8 billion.
Together, these nonprofits have collectively paid Arabella over $200 million in consulting fees while creating hundreds of left-wing policy and advocacy organizations through “fiscal sponsorship” agreements that generate “pop-up groups” that operate under the umbrella of an Arabella-managed nonprofit, are not required to file independent financial disclosure forms, and often exist as little more than a website.
Arabella has attempted to portray itself as a simple provider of human resources, accounting, and legal services for these nonprofits, but leaked documents show that Arabella has “centralized control” over the operations of its “managed organizations” and even the pop-up groups they create.
Arabella pop-up groups have targeted a wide range of political issues, including abortion, net neutrality, health care policy, Supreme Court confirmations, the 2020 Census, environmental regulations, election law, tax policy, electoral redistricting, and more. Many Arabella pop-up groups have “spun off” to become independent organizations.
As of 2023, top donors to nonprofits within the Arabella network include leftist billionaires like Bill Gates, Hansjorg Wyss, George Soros, Mark Zuckerberg, Pierre Omidyar, and Warren Buffett. The Arabella network has also received large contributions from legacy private foundations like the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and from donor-advised funds like Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.
There is a direct connection to Washington State.
Secret Emails to Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee (2022)
Via Influence Watch:
In June 2017, Arabella Advisors senior managing director Bruce Boyd and New Venture Fund president Lee Bodner pitched the Arabella network’s fiscal sponsorship services to the office of Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D), offering to administer and connect donors to the U.S. Climate Alliance. The alliance is a coalition of governors formed in 2017 who support greenhouse gas reduction policies in line with the 2015 Paris Climate Accord, both in their states and at the federal level. Boyd and Bodner were introduced to Chris Davis, then Inslee’s senior climate staffer, by Matt Steuerwalt, a consultant for the Seattle lobbying firm Insight Strategy Partners and then a policy director for the Inslee administration.
Steuerwalt previously worked as a climate policy advisor for Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire (D); his firm is also led by Gregoire’s ex-chief of staff, Marty Loesch. Another Inslee staffer, Sam Ricketts, was also present in the email correspondence and refers to Arabella: “I know some Arabella Advisors folks... good group.” Ricketts is now a senior fellow for energy and environment at the Center for American Progress whose biography notes that he helped “Gov. Inslee to establish the U.S. Climate Alliance.”
Bodner notes that New Venture Fund is “a $350 million/year 501c3 that serves as a platform to 200+ projects. About 30% of our work is on the environment. We help donors, individuals, and governments quickly mobilize resources to get projects up and running quickly (we can hire staff, and have deep advocacy expertise, for example) and we facilitate multi-stakeholder coalitions.”
Takeaway
There's much more to this story. I would encourage you to read more by following the links above.
In a November 24, 2019, letter to the editor published by the Washington Post, Capital Research Center president Scott Walter identified the $26.7 million donation as originating with the New Venture Fund, the largest of Arabella’s in-house nonprofits. He confirmed Politico’s suspicion that the Sixteen Thirty Fund is “part of a larger network of dark money.”
Arabella Advisors has accused the Capital Research Center (CRC), a right-leaning think tank that publishes InfluenceWatch, of promoting “a series of... false claims” that “turn on a variety of factual errors and deliberate mischaracterizations” regarding Arabella Advisors since 2019. However, neither the company nor its nonprofit network has ever provided specific information regarding any factual errors or mischaracterizations publicized by CRC.
Andrew Jackson said, "I weep for the liberty of my country when I see at this early day of its successful experiment that corruption has been imputed to many members of the House of Representatives, and the rights of the people have been bartered for promises of office."
The Bible says in 1 Timothy 6:5-19, "Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself."
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Prayerful.