Bloomberg News reports, Independent Sinema Courted by GOP as Democrat Raises $1 Million:
Newly “independent” [Prima Donna Davos Diva] Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona is being courted by Senate Republicans, as the Democrat running to take her seat next year raked in $1 million the day after announcing his candidacy.
Representative Ruben Gallego has capitalized on Sinema’s unpopularity with Democrats in Arizona and nationwide, pulling in donations from 27,000 people after making his much-anticipated 2024 bid for the Senate seat official on Monday.
Since declaring as an independent in December, Sinema has continued to align with Democrats on many issues and caucuses with them for purposes of Senate control, taking turns presiding over the chamber and keeping her committee assignments.
She hasn’t said whether she will run for reelection next year.
Sinema triggered backlash from Democrats in her home state over her stances on taxes and keeping the Senate’s filibuster rule. As an independent, she would be spared from having to compete in a Democratic primary. After that, though, she’d have a tough road in a three-way race against a Democratic candidate and a Republican in the narrowly divided swing state.
John Thune, the second-ranking Senate Republican, has proposed a way to potentially improve Sinema’s odds.
“As she knows, because I’ve conveyed this to her many times, we would welcome her in our caucus,” Thune said at the Capitol late Monday.
Why? Sinema “has voted with the president 93% of the time”. The MAGA/QAnon crazy base of the GQP would never vote for her over a true believer MAGA/QAnon cult member like “Krazy Kari” Lake, for example, in a GQP primary. Nor would “Dear Leader” Donald Trump approve. She is a goner in a GQP primary, just as she is a goner in a Democratic primary. Her only chance of reelection is as an “independent” (party-of-one, Me!) to somehow split the vote in such a way that she does out on top. But who would these voters be? As I said, she is a goner in a GQP primary, just as she is a goner in a Democratic primary. I seriously doubt that there is a “silent majority” out there who supports her “bipartisanship” shtick. It is not evident in polling.
Thune said Sinema was welcome to stay an independent and caucus with Republicans or fully switch to the GOP, either of which would complicate, but not end, Democratic control of the chamber. A switch potentially could give her crucial party support ahead of any reelection bid, as backing from Democrats is uncertain with the more liberal Gallego in the race.
“That invitation is always out there,” Thune said. “She’s going to have to figure out, one, if she’s going to run again, and two, if she is, if she is going to run as an independent, and it looks like that’s what she intends to do.”
After the 2022 elections, Democrats solidified their Senate majority with 51 seats, up from a 50-50 split, including Sinema and two other independents who also caucus with Democrats and are more closely aligned with the party — Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King of Maine.
Many Democratic senators this week declined to say whether they’d support Sinema or Gallego, including fellow Arizona Senator Mark Kelly and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. Many of them noted she hasn’t yet said whether she will run.
As I have said before, take my advice and take that sweet highly paid lobbyist job from your billionaire corporate masters. You are for sale, and it is all about the Benjamin’s for you. What do you need with politics and elections? See, Anger as Sinema and Manchin high five at Davos summit over pledge not to reform filibuster.
I've heard from wealthy donors that Sinema is at her most comfortable and gregarious around rich donors and you can really see it here! https://t.co/LJUjAVZmZa
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) January 17, 2023
A group called “Replace Sinema”, organised by progressives to mobilise support for a challenge to her Senate seat, derided the senator in a statement to Common Dreams.
“Sinema has always been and will always be all about Sinema. She doesn’t care who her policies hurt. She doesn’t care that she stood in the way of voting rights and abortion rights, as long as she got the headlines she wanted,” Sacha Haworth told the news outlet. “Now, she’s on stage in Switzerland, in front of an audience of billionaires and Wall Street CEOs, bragging about her obstruction and giving high-fives. It’s no wonder she’s so unpopular among Arizonans of every political stripe.”
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has praised [this wolf in sheep’s clothing, quite literally] for saving the filibuster and being at the center of bipartisan deals.
“As to whether or not she chooses to run again is really her decision and I think it is a big dilemma for the Senate Democratic majority to decide whether to support her or whether to support somebody running on the Democratic ticket,” he said.
One who is behind her and said Democrats should back her if she runs: West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin, her frequent ally. The duo last week high-fived in Davos, Switzerland, at a World Economic Forum panel over their mutual support for the filibuster rule, which thwarted assorted Democratic priorities including voting rights in the previous Congress.
The Senate seat from Arizona is rated a tossup by the Cook Political Report. It’s part of a very difficult political map for Democrats, in which they’ll be defending 23 seats, compared with 11 for Republicans.
Manchin has not decided whether to run again next year in a state where former President Donald Trump won in blowout fashion. Nor has Jon Tester of Montana, another state Trump won easily. Sherrod Brown is running for reelection in Ohio, a third Trump-won state.
In the category of “un-fucking believable,” Masarati Manchin is thinking about running for president, likely as the candidate from Joe Lieberman’s corporate billionaire group, No Labels. Sen. Joe Manchin says he hasn’t ruled out a presidential bid in 2024: ‘Everything is on the table’. It would make perfect sense if the equally clueless Prima Donna Davos Diva Senator Kyrsten Sinema would be his running mate.
Sinema’s top priority this year has been to forge a bipartisan deal to address the border and immigration, something that has eluded lawmakers for decades but is a major issue in her state. She recently took a bipartisan delegation to the border with Senator John Cornyn of Texas, a former GOP whip, in hopes of helping build a compromise.
Oh really? That’s not what the fascist propaganda network Fox News says. Cornyn’s office denies bipartisan immigration bill in the works amid conservative uproar.
Good luck with that.
And now the Senator From Bi-Sexual has been spotted Wednesday night having dinner with Kevin “Who has the Mason jar with my genitalia” McCarthy near the Washington Navy Yard. A couple of craven crumb bums.
Sinema is unpredictable, but I don’t see her becoming a Republican or joining their caucus while she’s in the Senate. That would significantly diminish the monetary value of her vote, just being absorbed into the GOP minority for the remainder of her term. Her price has already gone down with 51 democratic senators and a GOP controlled House that won’t be doing much of anything for the next two years except running a circus.
But I have to believe that becoming an Independent was part of some strategy to retain her seat, seeming to indicate that she’ll run for re-election if there’s a way.
Clearly her best option is to walk away with however many millions of dollars she can stockpile and take one of the “big jobs” she has earned by selling out. But so much of the Kyrsten Sinema Persona is her excessive craving for attention and she certainly got it as a Senator. There’s no way to get much attention as a lobbyist.
Not sure that Sinema would go for it but I like the idea of Biden offering her an ambassadorship. There’s a few slots open, even France(?) which would burnish her money grubbing potential. Then Governor Hobbs could appoint Reuben Gallego to fill her seat and Manchin could safely be told to go pound sand.
This is a very good plan, Wileybud.
Win/win.
If she’s just interested in money, she’d probably pass. Her filibuster and finance votes are her money makers, that and whatever she can scam from her next election.
If she was just interested in a career she should take it in a second.
Anyway, we are long overdue for an ambassador to Oz.
Dress for the job you want.
I thought at Davos she was dressing for the job she wants. One where she can “watch out where the Huskies go….” (Profuse apologies to Frank)
Wiley –
I’m guessing that she wouldn’t accept an ambassadorship – not lucrative enough. She could make more money from Big Pharma than Big Champagne.
Though being an ambassador to Big Champagne might appeal to certain of her sensibilities.