Sinema: "I Discovered I Wasn't Getting Enough Attention"

 

Photo: Francis Chung, Politico

Hard on the heels of Democrats' winning a true majority in the US Senate with the reelection of Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona made every Democrat go "Oh shit!" early this morning by announcing she was leaving the Democratic Party and registering as independent.

As a full-time narcissist, Sinema's promise that nothing will really change about how she will vote and which committees she will sit on can scarcely be taken to the bank -- because that promise presupposes that she will caucus with the Democrats since Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer makes those committee assignments. “I don’t anticipate that anything will change about the Senate structure,” Sinema told Politico.

Rather than high-minded independence from "partisan wrangling," Sinema's decision may have more to do with an expected primary for reelection in 2024, which she would be widely expected to lose. She is reportedly underwater in polling of Democrats in Arizona. An AARP poll released in September found that 54% of voters had an unfavorable view of her.

She is perhaps most notorious in Democratic circles for refusing to reform the filibuster and resisting rolling back the Trump tax-breaks for billionaires.

With Republican Candidates Like This, How Can Democrats Lose?

Arpaio and Whatisname

We're totally focused on the general elections of 2018 and on what might happen in those elections, so we've been tracking some of the Democratic candidates stepping forward this year to take on Republican incumbents. Once in a while, there's a new Republican candidate that makes our heart soar sore.

Like Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona, famously pardoned by Trump for being a racist dick and for defying a judge's order not to continue being a racist dick. Arpaio, who was sheriff of Maricopa for 24 years until the voters decisively booted him, announced yesterday that he's running for the Senate seat being vacated by Jeff Flake.

Hurray! We can only hope that Arpaio will win his Republican primary, because Arpaio will be Roy Moore of Alabama fame squared, a walking and spouting electoral train wreck that we'd all like to watch crash and burn. Maybe Steve Bannon will rush to campaign for him, because he's definitely a Bannon white nationalist.

Arpaio ran for reelection for his seventh term as sheriff in 2016. He got buried by a Democrat. Arpaio didn't even get as many votes in Maricopa County as Hillary Clinton did, and Hillary Clinton lost to Trump in that county. He's poison. Being a colossal jerk finally caught up with him. So we wish him

Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (center) and her staff spread gravel
as part of Habitat for Humanity's Neighborhood
Revitalization Program (Photo: Mark Henle/The Republic)

the best.

Meanwhile, several Democrats are also jockeying for Jeff Flake's seat, of which US Rep. Kyrsten Sinema is probably the front-runner right now. Sinema represents Tempe and parts of Phoenix, Chandler, and Mesa counties in the US House, and she's running an uphill race in a state that hasn't elected a Democrat to anything state-wide in an eon.

Sinema is criticized by the most progressive wing of the Democratic Party for not being progressive enough, but I'm in no mood to split those particular hairs when there's a potential winner in the race. Along with a potential train wreck named Joe Arpaio.