Congress member Kyrsten Sinema is the odds-on favorite to beat the gaggle of wacky Republicans, including mean Joe Arpaio, kooky Kelli Ward and seldom-seen Martha McSally for the US Senate seat for Arizona.
Sinema spoke at the Democrats of Greater Tucson and was poised, intelligent and articulate. “I launched a campaign for Senate to cut through the chaos and dysfunction in Washington and finally get some stuff done. The enthusiasm on the ground is like nothing like I’ve seen before. Our campaign is building a statewide team we’ll need to reach voters who are more motivated than ever to make a change,” she said.
Sinema is a three-term Congresswoman from the 9th Congressional District in Phoenix, first elected in 2012. A member of the Democratic Party, she served in both chambers of the State Legislature, being elected to the Arizona House of Representatives in 2004 and the Arizona Senate in 2010.
She has a compelling personal story of growing up homeless in a gas station. Saying, “I knew I could make it if I got a good education,” she went to BYU with the help of student loans, academic scholarships, and financial aid, and then ASU, where she now teaches Legal Issues in Social Work.
The American Dream
“I am a product of the American dream. And my way of paying my debt to society is public service. It is my commitment as a United States Senator that I will continue to do the work as I have done to be accountable, to listen even to people with whom I disagree, and to make best decisions in the best interests of my community,” she says.
A formidable fundraiser (she has $5,149,035 on hand for 2018), she is the front-runner in the race for the Senate seat being vacated by Republican Jeff Flake. She is competing in the primary with Democrats Deedra Abboud, Bob Bishop, and Chris Russell.
On the Republican side, disgraced Sheriff Arpaio and loathsome candidate Kelli Ward will fight over the right fringe of the party, and are likely to be defeated in the primary by Trump-supplicant Martha McSally and her Koch brothers funding.
According to the March 21, 2018, Public Policy Polling survey, voters prefer Democrat Kyrsten Sinema over Republican Martha McSally 46%-41%. Among voters who say that health care is the most important issue, Sinema’s lead grows to 71%-17% over McSally. Health care is ranked as a top issue for 68% of Arizona voters (21% saying it is the most important issue and another 47% saying it is very important).
McSally is little-known outside of Tucson, where is rarely seen by her own constituents. Her legislative record is thin (primarily claiming that she kept the A-10 airplane at the air base) except for her treacherous vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act in May 2017. McSally’s campaign has $1,816,668 on hand.
A tough race
Sinema predicts a tough race for US Senate, pointing out that Democrats haven’t won a Senate seat since 1994 and haven’t won a statewide race since 2008. “To win in November we must make sure that every Democrat knows the importance of this election and votes in November 2018. The good news is there’s so much energy and excitement, you can feel it all over Arizona,” she says.
Sinema is known as an independent thinker, not always voting with the party line and working across the aisle with Republicans. “I do not regret any of the votes I’ve taken in Congress, because when I take a position, I base it on what’s in the best interests of my community and my constituents, not on what party leaders want me to do.”
“I also don’t care whether a vote I’m making aligns with any given president or members of Congress. What I care about is whether the vote aligns with the community I serve. I believe very firmly I should always put my country before party, whether somebody is on the other side of the aisle makes no difference. What matters is doing what’s right.”
Gun Safety
She is working with Democratic Congressman Mike Thompson of California, Chairman of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, to fix the NICS background check system for gun purchases. “Right here in Arizona people who are domestic abusers, violent felons and those who are dangerously mentally ill can still get access to weapons,” she said.
She also supports the STOP act which allocates funding for schools to hire mental health professionals. “Only about 5% of mentally ill people pose a danger to themselves or others. We will make sure that these people cannot get weapons, and will create a system that raises red flags for those who are facing these mental illnesses and not getting the help they need.”
McSally has an A rating from the NRA and took $77,063 in donations from the gunmaker lobby.
Citizenship for DACA Dreamers
Sinema is an original co-sponsor of the Dream Act, which gives DACA recipients a path to citizenship. “They should not be forced to leave the only country they call home,” she said. “They deserve a shot at being Americans.”
She is also a co-sponsor of the USA Act (Uniting and Securing America Act). This bipartisan, bicameral bill protects DACA recipients from deportation while implementing new commonsense border security measures through enhanced technology, manpower and physical barriers where necessary.
Regarding recent raids by ICE, she says, “I support the work ICE when it is targeted toward people who are a threat to our country. So if an individual engages in criminal activities, like committing dangerous felonies like raping and murdering, they should be arrested, detained and deported. But individuals who are here because their status has expired, for example the Dreamers, they should not be targets. They have done nothing wrong. They are hard working individuals who are doing their best to make it.”
Clean Power
The Navajo Generating Station in Northern Arizona will be closing down in 2019. “I’m committed to working with the Navajo and Hopi communities to find new job opportunities for those individuals before they lose their jobs. So as we move toward a cleaner energy future, I want to be very mindful about ensuring we’re taking care of those families who will be impacted by lost jobs,” she says.
Accessibility and Transparency
Marion Chubon, the founder of the Represent Me AZ PAC, noted that McSally has refused to agree to an public town hall for 1,000 days. Sinema said, “I’ve been in Congress for six years. We have made access and transparency a primary part of the work we do. Our office is open. I’ve made it a priority to meet with constituents myself. It’s important to be accountable and transparent.”
Trump’s trade war
“I’m very concerned about a trade war because it would devastate Arizona. We are heavily dependent on trade for so much of our income. Our largest trade partner is Mexico, and our second largest is Canada. The president’s renegotiation of NAFTA is concerning, and I want to make sure it’s done in a way that benefits Arizona workers.”
“It is true that China is a bad actor on the global stage. They steal patents, they don’t play fair and they manipulate their currency, so it is important to hold China accountable for its bad acts. But I believe that launching a trade war and launch a fight over tariffs could be problematic and dangerous. I’ve been urging my colleges on both sides of the aisle to communicate with the Administration about the importance of being thoughtful and careful about the actions and impacts this could have on the United States.”
For more, visit Sinema’s web site.
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Kyrsten Sinema was one of seven Democrats who voted YES for this. It didn’t pass, of course, but what in the blazing hell is she thinking?
233 Members of Congress Just Voted to Steal Social Security’s $2.9 Trillion Surplus
(Washington, DC) — The following is a statement from Nancy Altman, President of Social Security Works, in reaction to nearly every Republican member of the House of Representatives, as well as seven Democrats, voting for a Constitutional amendment requiring that all annual revenue and spending balance every year:
“Every pay period, starting with our first jobs, America’s workers contribute to Social Security. The program uses those funds to pay all benefits and related administrative costs. Social Security does not add even a penny to the deficit, as Republican President Ronald Reagan so clearly stated when he was president.
When Social Security runs a surplus, Social Security holds the funds in trust. Social Security currently has a $2.9 trillion accumulated surplus. In the guise of a so-called balanced budget amendment, 233 members of the House of Representatives just voted to pretend that the accumulated surplus does not exist.
Ninety-seven percent of Republicans just voted to steal those past contributions. They voted, in effect, to not pay back hardworking Americans when those funds will be needed to pay their earned benefits. (Ninety-six percent of Democrats voted to honor their commitment to the American people.)
That 233 politicians would vote to steal this money is shameful. It helps explain the low regard the American people have for Congress. Fortunately for Social Security beneficiaries, the amendment did not attain the two-thirds majority required to pass the House. But those who voted for it are now on the record in support of stealing the American people’s earned Social Security benefits.”
https://www.socialsecurityworks.org/2018/04/12/politicians-steal-social-security/
Why a Balanced Budget Amendment Would Harm Social Security and Federal Deposit Insurance
APRIL 9, 2018 AT 10:15 AM
The problems with a constitutional balanced budget amendment, which the House will vote on this week, go far beyond the significant economic harm it could cause. For instance, its requirement that policymakers offset federal spending in any year with revenues collected in that same year would prevent Social Security and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) from using their reserves for their intended purposes of paying benefits and responding to bank failures, respectively.
Social Security. By design, the Social Security trust fund has built up reserves — in the form of Treasury securities backed by the full faith and credit of the United States — which it will use to help pay benefits for retired “baby boomers” in the late 2020s and early 2030s. Social Security now holds $2.9 trillion in Treasury securities.
But under the balanced budget amendment, it would essentially be unconstitutional for Social Security to use these savings to pay promised benefits. Instead, it could have to cut benefits, because all federal spending would have to be covered by tax revenues collected during that same year. More precisely, Social Security could use its accumulated Treasury securities to help pay benefits only if the rest of the federal budget ran an offsetting surplus (or if the House and Senate each mustered the three-fifths vote to override the balanced budget requirement).
…
https://www.cbpp.org/blog/why-a-balanced-budget-amendment-would-harm-social-security-and-federal-deposit-insurance
Earth to Democratic Leadership…
Democrats don’t f*** with Social Security except to make it BETTER.
Please advise your chosen candidates.
(Yes, I know it didn’t pass. That’s not the point).
BTW, I’m pretty sure she knew it wouldn’t pass, she voted for it for the most disgusting reason of all, pandering to clueless right wing voters.
This kind of nonsense, from HRC to the DNC to Sinema, is why we have a con man in the White House.
Dems need to do better. Winning isn’t winning if the “Dem” isn’t a Dem.
Maybe she better study this next time she decides to pander to clueless rightwing voters (many of whom collect Social Security).
https://www.aarp.org/content/dam/aarp/research/surveys_statistics/general/2014/ssqf/Social-Security-2014-Arizona-Quick-Facts-AARP-res-gen.pdf
These votes matter, symbolic or otherwise.
The So-Called Balanced Budget Amendment is a Backdoor Attack on Social Security
…
The BBA would require federal spending in any given year to be offset by revenues collected in that same year. In practice, that would force cuts to the earned Social Security benefits now received by over 60 million beneficiaries.
The law requires that Social Security’s surplus – which is currently over $2.8 trillion and growing –be held in trust, segregated from the general fund of the federal government. The BBA would ignore this reality and pretend that Social Security’s $2.8 trillion reserve does not exist.
Those voting for the BBA are voting to, in effect, steal all the past contributions made to Social Security by America’s workers and their employers. They would be voting, in effect, to steal the interest earned on those surplus contributions. They would be voting not only to steal those contributions but to ignore the fact that Social Security’s revenue is dedicated to just one purpose – the payment of Social Security’s earned benefits and related administrative costs.
To repeat, Social Security does not add a penny to the deficit. The program’s funds are wisely kept separate from the rest of the federal budget to protect the American people’s earned benefits. But if the BBA becomes law, that separation would end. Social Security’s benefits would be cut to offset other costs, including the $1.5 trillion tax handout that Republicans just gave to billionaires and corporations. Indeed, that is the true purpose of the BBA. Republicans don’t care about balancing budgets, but they do care about transferring wealth from the most vulnerable people in our society to the wealthiest among us.
We know this because they have been attempting to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid for years. Throughout his career, soon-to-be former Speaker Ryan has supported voucherizing Medicare, privatizing Social Security, and block granting Medicaid. This is jargon for ending all three programs. Immediately after passing the tax giveaway to the wealthy, Ryan told radio host Ross Kaminsky that “we’re going to have to get back next year at entitlement reform,” His pejorative label for three extremely invaluable, well-designed programs.
…
For Ryan and his caucus, the appeal of the BBA is that it’s a sneaky backdoor way to cut benefits while avoiding political accountability. They already starved our government’s general revenue with their tax scheme. By using the BBA to cut Social Security off from its dedicated trust fund they can force cuts to happen without leaving their fingerprints. If the BBA were to become law, cuts would follow, probably automatically, without the need for even another vote .
…
A vote for the BBA is a vote to raid the Social Security and Medicare trust funds. It is a vote to end the promise of Social Security, which workers have relied on for over eighty years. It is a vote that says to the American people, in the strongest possible terms, that they should throw the thieves out of office this November.
https://socialsecurity.news/balanced-budget-social-security/
Voting YES on this is not being INDEPENDENT, it is being STUPID.
Maybe it will fly under the radar because so much else is happening. But I sure as hell noticed.
This ain’t good. My advice is to not do too many of these.
Careful, pointing out what a train wreck Sinema is got Wileybud blacklisted from this site.
If you vote Republican you’re a Republican.
She’ll literally be the lesser of two evils.
Well, pointing out what a lifelong Democratic voters might think when a handpicked Democratic “frontrunner” votes to dismantle the social safety net really should be considered a gift.
The BBA is a farce, of course. Yet, there is no spin that can be put on a Democrat’s YES vote that looks good. In fact, Fake Rep Martha was a co-sponsor of this abomination, that’s how bad it is.
So, if we’re talking about symbolic votes then what we are actually talking about is messages. And what message does this send to constituents? “Yes, we must get these exploding deficits under control and the social safety net (as well as the FDIC for crying out loud) will have to go under the knife. And, by the way, the Social Security Trust Fund will be tossed upon the scrap heap of history”.
I dunno. I’m not a gambler, but I’d say that the smart money would bet that even the dumbest Republican Trump voter who depends on Social Security might wake up when their benefits are threatened.
And that’s what is going on here. The GOP isn’t going to introduce a “Repeal and Replace Social Security and Medicare” bill like they did with the ACA. They are looking for some other way.
Kyrsten Sinema needs to swear on ten thousand bibles that she will protect Social Security and Medicare if elected to the Senate as a Democrat. Otherwise, she should run as an Independent.
And I’m not sure if Wileybud is blacklisted or in voluntary exile. Either way he needs to come back.
Here’s the post that got Wileybud blackballed.
https://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2018/04/how-bad-is-arizona-blue-dog-kyrsten.html
I hope he’s just not online, but it sure feels like a purge. I think discussing the issue instead of blackballing him would have been better. The post is harsh, but I don’t see anything in it that’s not true.
You (Liza), Wileybud, Edward when he was around, Francis, there are commenters here that are smarter and better spoken than me and I look forward to their thoughts on issues.
If we can’t discuss things then I’ll go elsewhere.
And for the record, I’ve never voted for her, I leave that line unconnected, but I may if she has a chance to win.
And that makes me very, very sad.
Yeah, we should certainly be allowed to discuss Sinema’s voting record as well as anything else that is relevant to her representing us in the Senate.
I would vote for the Devil himself in a race against Fake Rep Martha, and I do believe that would be the lesser of two evils choice.
But we shouldn’t have to settle for that. I don’t know much about Ms. Sinema and I just started looking at her more recent voting record a couple of days ago. Most House representatives aren’t known outside their districts, and a statewide race kind of gives them an opportunity for a partial makeover. And, based on this post, it does seem that Ms. Sinema put considerable thought into her presentation.
But, of course, the people who live in her district know stuff that is going to come out during the campaign. And it will be interesting to see how effectively she deals with it. I’d say she’s off to a very bad start with her vote yesterday to decimate the Social Security Trust Fund etc… That could have been used against Martha McSally in the general election, but not so anymore, not when she agrees with it.
I was very disappointed yesterday, to say the least. I called her Phoenix office this morning, but the nice young man who answered the phone had no explanation for her vote.
Wileybud accused a candidate of threatening to kill people and taking bribes, and he linked to a blood-spattered picture of the candidate. He copied and pasted hateful screed and posted it as his own comment, which violated our editorial discretion for posting comments.
A warning would have been nice. Wileybud is a thoughtful progressive.
Sinema is a Republican. People deserve to know her record.
“A warning would have been nice”
Co-sign X 100.
Interesting post, Mr. Bodine. Thank you for all your hard work in keeping us informed about candidates.
It sounds as though Rep Sinema was quite well prepared for her presentation. The Democrats definitely have some issues to work with in purplish Arizona – healthcare, DACA, education, clean energy, etc…
It will be a tough race, to be sure, even against Fake Rep Martha.
Also, everyone should check out Rep Sinema’s website linked in the post. The pictures on her home page right now are really nice especially the one with the children.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xqT-xqfsqs
I think a few minutes researching CQ Magazine will disabuse anyone from taking the seriously. This isn’t the first time Sinema has used a fake “award” as an endorsement.
FFS, I want a Dem to win, but this astroturfing bullshit needs to stop.
Sineme is a corporate Republican running as a Dem to get a job.
Please prove me wrong. Or blackball me, I can always get around that.
Interesting. There was actually more packed into this 15 seconds than I realized.
My initial impression was that I wonder why she is hawking her support for veterans and law enforcement in the same 15 second video. I get that this was done for “Siblings Day” and her brother is a cop and a former marine. Even so, it did raise questions in my mind about her support for “law enforcement” and what that means to her.
Democrats are going to have to face up to the policing problem in this country as well as many other problems within the criminal justice system that disproportionately affect their most loyal voting bloc and other POC.
These “reach across the aisle” Democrats have some real problems when deciding who to court and who not to. But they haven’t been very successful winning statewide elections in Arizona by being Democrats in recent years. So, has the Democratic leadership decided that an “independent” in Arizona who will vote with Democrats on major bills a satisfactory outcome for now? Apparently so.
To be honest, I didn’t catch what was written in the boxes. You’re a fast reader.
So, I noticed that the comments counter is at 3, but there are no comments. And I saw one comment earlier.
Liza, we had a person who abused the comment section. The comment was un-approved, which also took down the reply comments.
The comments were about Sinema being more Republican than Democrat.
The article posted by another commenter was harsh, my comments may have been as well.
The other commenter and myself are regulars, we try to support this blog and the great work you all do.
I’ll apologize for my tone and if I offended, but I stand by my statements. I’ll probably vote for Sinema, but I won’t like it.
I hope we can still discuss what the other commenter posted. It was long, but there were some good points.
And if there were things that are not valid, it would be good to discuss those, too.
I know this is not a free speech issue, I’m just hoping we can have open dialog about something this important.
Wileybud, I’m hoping you’re still around.
And FYI, since I have firsthand knowledge, allowing any business to avoid operating under SarbOx is an open invitation for fraud.
Period. She’s literally allowing criminals to set up shop and start taking people’s money.
Kyrsten Sinema is the Phil Gramm of Hillary Clinton’s.
I’ll end up voting for Sinema for the same reason I voted for HRC, the other person is even worse.