Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona announced Friday that she has registered as an independent, but she does not plan to caucus with Republicans, ensuring Democrats will retain their narrow majority in the Senate.
Sinema, who has modeled her political approach on the renegade style of the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and has frustrated Democratic colleagues at times with her overtures to Republicans and opposition to Democratic priorities, said she was “declaring my independence from the broken partisan system in Washington.”
In a video explaining her decision, she said: “Registering as an independent and showing up to work with the title of independent is a reflection of who I’ve always been. ... Nothing’s going to change for me.”
I smell bullshit. Sinema strikes me as being one of those politicians who has to be at the center of the spotlight. She's not a worker, she's a glory-hog. She did zip-point-shit to help anyone else running for office in the 2022 elections. The guiding light in her political career has seemed to be never what good for anyone else, only what is good for her (and her donors). Everyone who knows her says that she is usually the smartest person in the room, that she's a savvy political operator. But one thing has become abundantly clear is that she is very much like the TOFF in that she is happiest when people are talking about her. That would seem to be her only political principle.
But note that she's not really hewing true to her so-called principle of being an independent. She's going to keep her Democratic committee assignments in the Senate, so she will be a IINO, an independent in name only.
Unlike Vermont, I am unaware of any existence of a network of independents in Arizona that could work to get Sinema on the ballot when it comes to time for her to run again in 2024. So look for her to say "oops, I'm still a Democrat" when it becomes convenient for her.
9 comments:
I think it more likely she says 'oh, I've been a Republican all along'
I haven't decided if I'll write about this later today. I have a history with the greenies dating to my transition out of woods-work ~ Logging ~ 30+ years ago. Since the turn of century, though, I have increasingly seen them as Putin's Property. This certainly doesn't surprise me, she started her career as a greenie, switched to Democrat for a veneer of credibility, and has since been as you say nothing but a gloryhound, not unlike most of the repubs today. I can no longer think of any good reason to afford her, or them, a measure of credibility.
(also, I called it, 3 days ago)
An alternative theory, not inconsistent with the attention whore view, is that she knows she has no future running as a Democrat and this bypasses a primary.
Doug, then she has to spin up an organization capable of getting the number of signatures necessary to get on the ballot. Which apparently would be somewhere between 41,440 and 414,393 valid signatures (1-10% of registered voters).
I wonder why the change of heart now? She had no problems knifing Democratic proposals in the back so far, why change parties? I also can't imagine that having voted for her to support the Democrats, I would again vote for her as an independent, not that she hasn't been one all along.
Ambitious bitch, isn't she? I hope this is the end of her.
w3ski
I agree, CM, but this is the only road she could possibly have. Or she may just be a crank.
She already had a credible primary challenger in Ruben Gallego, so if she's anywhere near as smart as they say she is, she knows she's alienated the rising Democratic tide in her state and is likely to be toast any way you look at it.
-Doug in Sugar Pine
She's lined her pockets nicely.
Comrade, she would need 3% of the registered voters not affiliated with a party that qualifies for representation…the current number is 43,492 for a Senate run (1/2/2022) per A.R.S. §16-341.
Yeah, the whole "I dare you to run a Democrat against me and split the vote so the goddamn Republican wins" is a dick move, right in character.
-Doug in Sugar Pine
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