Sen. Kyrsten Sinema leaves the Democratic Party to register as an independent

By artappraiser on Fri, 12/09/2022 - 9:44am |

Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, an unapologetic moderate who has alienated progressives with her stance on the filibuster and other issues, is leaving the Democratic Party to register as an independent.https://t.co/h4uPXoQ5PP
— NPR (@NPR) December 9, 2022

URL:

https://www.npr.org/2022/12/09/1141827943/sinema-leaves-democratic-party-independent

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A moderate? AZ news calls her an "opportunist".
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema delivers a gut punch to Democrats (azcentral.com)

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema leaves Democratic Party to become an independent (azcentral.com)

And I guess it's all good fun to cosplay Ted Lasso, but taking McConnell's side and laughing it up with the conservative "nice guy" while siding with Repubs on the "more tax breaks for the super rich" side isn't quite the "moderate" that many people think of. AZ Republic was less than impressed when she wore sleeveless jean jacket while presiding over the Senate to counter Biden's signature "Build Back Better" effort, her elaborate McCain-emulating thumbs down in voting against minimum wage hike (hoping somehow theyre'd be a bipartisan alternative), and then her "fuck off" ring for social media fans... well, she seems to be more a self-promoter than a moderate trying to keep sanity to reasonable levels.

by PeraclesPlease on Fri, 12/09/2022 - 10:39am

How would Sinema's change to Independent impact the next Arizona election? Would it look like the 2006 Connecticut Senate election?
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) December 9, 2022

My sense is that AZ Republicans are unlikely to endorse Sinema or decline to field a serious candidate but I don't know that much about AZ politics.
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) December 9, 2022

Sinema being an independent who caucuses with Dems is 100% the scenario that Dem leadership wants. They would rather see her go straight to the general than potentially lose the primary to a nationally prominent money-pit candidate who would be weak in the general.
— caroline mccarthy (@caro) December 9, 2022

Bingo. A contested and nasty primary will be very bad news for the DNC in a close state.
— Mat Vaillancourt (@MVLibertas) December 9, 2022

And an enormous, avoidable distraction in an electoral year that will be very difficult for Dems overall. https://t.co/vOFrPLLtno
— caroline mccarthy (@caro) December 9, 2022

Indeed, the 2018 senate class will be up for re-election.
— Mat Vaillancourt (@MVLibertas) December 9, 2022

by artappraiser on Sat, 12/10/2022 - 5:26am

countering misinformation:

Kyrsten Sinema has voted more often with the current Democratic president (93.1%) than Bernie Sanders has (91.4%).

https://t.co/6iLe4Hd8aH https://t.co/ABmj28Vehj
— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) December 11, 2022

by artappraiser on Mon, 12/12/2022 - 6:05am

Good point - Bernie likely calls Joe a "corporate Dem" as well.

by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 12/12/2022 - 9:00am

More misinfo/counterweight?

The Twitter Files propagandists use political donations as their ONLY evidence that Twitter skews left. Almost 10% of Twitter employee donations in 2022 were to Khanna. https://t.co/cCDXe8RPB9
— emptywheel (@emptywheel) December 11, 2022

by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 12/12/2022 - 9:12am

Two years ago if you told me a Senator was going to write federal same-sex marriage protections, close the "Boyfriend Loophole", drug pricing under Medicare, stock buybacks tax, a $1.2T infrastructure bill, I'd say "that's a progressive Senator!"

Her name is Kyrsten Sinema.
— Chester A. Arthur (@ZacAKAMadu) December 14, 2022

by artappraiser on Wed, 12/14/2022 - 5:29pm

If AZ had the Top-4 primary, RCV general election -- as in AK -- would Sen. Sinema still be a D? She might have concluded she could not survive a D primary but I assume she can get to the general election via signatures as an I. @Rob_Richie @Nedfoley @leedrutman
— Rick Pildes (@RickPildes) December 9, 2022

I'm not sure. I suspect some of this has to do with her personal branding and attention-seeking. But with or without Top 4, she still has to get the Democrat to effectively stand down, as Murkowksi did in AK in order to win. Not sure she was much of a D anyway.
— Lee Drutman (@leedrutman) December 9, 2022

by artappraiser on Fri, 12/16/2022 - 8:11pm

Structurally this "primaries to the left, generals to the right" has been a prob as long as I've been alive. Al Gore, as woke as he was, got blasted by Bill Bradley or more, the bored ahit-disturbing MSM that needed a horserace where there was none

by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 12/17/2022 - 4:28am

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