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Opinion | Kyrsten Sinema Is Right. This Is Who She’s Always Been.
Michelle Goldberg
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It’s true: This is who she’s always been. The content of Sinema’s politics has changed over time, from Green Party progressivism to pro-corporate centrism. Her approach to elected office as a vehicle for the refinement of the self has not.
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In Sinema’s 2009 book
“Unite and Conquer: How to Build Coalitions That Win — and Last,” she
described giving up shrill partisanship, which was making her unhappy,
for a vaguely New Age ethos that prized inner tranquillity. ✓ Transcending fear and anger is an excellent spiritual goal. But becoming a more centered and fabulous person is a political project only when it’s directed toward aims beyond oneself. With Sinema, it’s not remotely clear what those aims might be, or if they exist. (Another chapter in her book is “Letting Go of Outcomes.”) Announcing her new independent status, Sinema wrote an essay in The Arizona Republic and gave interviews to outlets including Politico and CNN. Nowhere have I seen her articulate substantive differences with the Democrats, aside from her opposition to tax increases. Instead, she spoke about not fitting into a box, being true to herself, and wanting to work, as she told Politico, without the “pressures or the poles of a party structure.”
Until recently, Sinema has seemed to delight in the power an evenly split Senate gave her, which she used to benefit the financial and pharmaceutical industries...
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“One of her deep flaws is that she doesn’t realize our actions have impacts every day on people who need our help,” said Ruben Gallego, a Democratic Arizona congressman who’d been considering a primary campaign against Sinema.
For much of this year, Sinema appeared to be preparing for a future in a Senate run by the Republican Mitch McConnell. In September, at a cozy appearance with McConnell in Kentucky, she said, “As you all know, control changes between the House and the Senate every couple of years. It’s likely to change again in just a few weeks.” She described McConnell as a friend, and he praised her as the “most effective first-term senator” he’d seen in his career.
Had Republicans won the Senate, Sinema could have become an independent who caucused with Republicans, preserving her place in the majority. A red wave might have seemed to vindicate her aggressive centrism, especially if Senator Mark Kelly, an Arizona Democrat far more loyal to his party, had lost. But Kelly won and Democrats picked up a Senate seat. That meant Sinema could no longer hold the rest of the Democratic caucus hostage, or argue that only Democrats who defy their base are electable in her state. She was about to become a lot less relevant. Now she’s center stage again.
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For the immediate future, Sinema’s move is unlikely to have major national political consequences. . ." READ MORE
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As an independent, Kyrsten Sinema can play spoiler to Democrats. That's assuming she runs at all.
"Kyrsten Sinema made official today what has been obvious for a long time: She’s not a Democrat.
The announcement is certainly not shocking — she ran in 2018 on her independent streak and has legislated that way — but it will have huge electoral ramifications if she chooses to run for reelection in 2024.
Most importantly, it paves the way for a Republican Party that has embarrassingly lost the past three U.S. Senate contests and has proven it would rather embrace extremism and batty conspiracies rather than competency and sanity to win back a Senate seat.
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And maybe that’s exactly the leverage that Sinema hopes to use to keep Democrats at bay and retain her spot as one of the most consequential votes in the Senate. But, then again, this could all be window dressing for her to be a one-term-and-done senator who opts to run for something else — or leave the political arena altogether. . .
And given recent polling, Sinema is deeply unpopular in Arizona: A September poll by AARP found no constituency liked her, a shocking turnaround from just four years earlier when she won the election.
That all assumes she can keep serious Democratic candidates — people like U.S. Reps. Ruben Gallego or Greg Stanton — out of the race. Even in optimal circumstances, with the party behind an independent candidate, that is dicey. But after repeatedly punching Democrats in the gut for the past two years, the party infrastructure won’t lift a finger to help Sinema.
Her moving to an independent is far more harmful to the Democrats than it is the Republicans, of that there is no doubt. Suddenly, the Democratic nominee would have to fight Sinema to win those disaffected soft Republican voters and right-leaning independents.
But I think it’s all for naught. Those with knowledge of private campaign polling say Sinema had torpedoed her chances at winning in the 2024 primary by, over and over again, telling Democrats she wasn’t one of them and wouldn’t stand with them on core issues.
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This move to be an independent strikes me as the first step in the next phase of her public life, not a serious move to win reelection in a hyper partisan political climate where the R or D after a candidate’s name is shorthand for voters who have already made up their minds. Whatever else she is, Sinema is a brilliant tactician and a canny political operator. She knows exactly how difficult a statewide three-way race as an independent will be.
Sinema has a constituency of one, and this is the ultimate selfish move in catering to her belief that she is uniquely qualified to be at the center of American governance. And when the clock runs out on that, she’ll use it to capitalize on the next opportunity." READ MORE
Former friends and foes unsurprised by Sinema's defection from Democratic Party
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"Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema announced Friday morning that she was leaving the Democratic Party, a move that was not surprising to political observers and longtime former allies and foes of the senior senator who are now looking ahead to 2024. . .
In Sinema’s Friday announcement, she posted a video and op-ed in AzCentral stating she wants to be an “independent voice” and decrying the partisan nature of Washington, D.C. Coughlin and others see this as a move that will help her if she intends to run in 2024.
“We always knew that she was calculating, and I think we are only seeing the latest label that she has found to suit her purposes,” Sacha Haworth, senior advisor to the Change for Arizona 2024 PAC, told the Mirror. Haworth worked as Sinema’s campaign communications director in 2018 but recently joined the PAC.
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The “rebrand and rename” only proves their points about Sinema and is pushing them harder to elect a “real Democrat” in 2024, Haworth said.
“She calculated that she would run as an independent,” Haworth said.
That idea was echoed by a former colleague and friend of Sinema’s from her days as a state lawmaker.
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David Schapira, a former Democratic state legislator who ran in a three-way primary against Sinema in 2012 in a bid for Congress, said Sinema’s ambition is all-consuming.
“Whatever move for political expediency she can make, she will make. This is just the latest in a long line,” Schapira said, noting that she had been a member of the Green Party before becoming a Democrat.
“She’s not crazy, she’s not stupid. She’s a brilliant person, and she’s very calculating. She’s methodical and she has a plan,” Schapira said. “If the polling says she can win a three-way race as an independent, that’s what she will do.”
And some of the polling might show just that. . .' READ MORE
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