It didn’t appear to have been a resolution of old conflicts when Sen. Kyrsten (I-Ariz.), left the Democratic party in December and became independent. It almost seemed like nothing had changed except the party affiliation letter that was published in the media after her name.
It is not surprising that United States senators are collegial most of the time. However, the situation was very different back in Arizona.
Sinema is hated by Arizona’s Democratic Party leaders. Sinema’s initial party switch was not a result of the public policy differences she was having with her Senate colleagues, but the ugly things at home. Although Sinema is still a staunch leftist on most issues you could find a Republican here that would be kind to her by Christmas last year, despite the fact that she is still a committed leftist.
Based on an article a friend and colleague sent me, it appears that Sinema’s relationship with Democrats is in decline.
Politico:
Sinema is racing to raise campaign money and make a statement with her first-quarter fundraising numbers. Sinema has been using a series of Republican-dominated retreats and receptions to mock her Democratic colleagues, praise her GOP allies, and in one instance, give the middle finger at President Joe Biden’s White House.
This is all before you have an audience.
According to senior Republican officials who were directly privy to her remarks, she is more direct in private conversations, whether with one-on-one or small groups of Republican senators. She’s particularly harsh about Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
Ouch.
Sinema’s erratic ways as a registered Democrat caused a lot of irrational exuberance from some Republican officials and voters about the possibility that she would one day join the party or even caucus alongside the Republicans. Every time that this topic comes up in conversation, I assure everyone it will not happen. Politico mentions this and states that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is “remaining skeptical” about this point.
It is nice to see that he still does the right things.
It’s easy to speculate that Sinema is working with the GOP to get the Dems out of her way. This is not her style. She is a free spirit but not a wildcard. She was motivated by Arizona’s purple state and her disagreements with Democrats. She may also be the last person in Congress to fully grasp the role of elected officials in a representative republic.
This article explains what might or may not occur next year when Sinema must defend her seat. This would be too complicated so I won’t go into detail. But, I will mention a few things. Politico claims that Doug Ducey, our recently-term-limited governor, doesn’t want the chance to run. He was very clear about this during the 2022 midterms. However, I have heard rumors that he may be considering running next year. These are rumors. But they come from people who know.
According to the article, some people in Sinema’s inner circle believe she will bail out and not run if she loses. That’s the vibe I have been getting from her for some time now. Arizona Democratic Party will do everything it can to discredit her next year. Although it’s not clear how much this will affect the minds of the average Arizona Democratic Party voter who voted in Sinema in 2018, there are many elderly voters who still believe in misleading mail campaigns.
Sinema won’t be invited to any Senate Democrat soirees.
According to a witness, she said that “these lunches were absurd” and explained why she stopped attending her caucus weekly luncheons in Washington.
She explained that she wasn’t a Democrat anymore. Sinema stated, “I’m not caucusing or joining the Democrats. I’m formally aligned to the Democrats for committee purposes.” “But apart from this, I am not part of the caucus.”
She let loose.
Sinema told a tale of old dudes eating Jell-O and everyone was laughing. “I don’t really need to go there for that. It’s about an hour and a quarter twice per week that I can return.”
When I read the first time I saw “Old guys are eating Jell O”, I laughed out loud. This line may be mine (with proper attribution, of course). She’s my senator.
These days, Kyrsten Sinema is called many things by many people.
Boring is not one of these things.
