Patterico's Pontifications

9/17/2019

Arizona Progressive Dems Target Sen. Kyrsten Sinema: No Independent Thinking Allowed

Filed under: General — Dana @ 7:05 pm



[guest post by Dana]

It’s refreshing to see a politician remain undeterred by their party’s pressure for conformity of thought and vote their conscience in an effort to serve the best interests of their constituents. When she was elected to represent Arizona in the Senate, Kyrsten Sinema was the first Democrat elected to a Senate seat in 30 years. In her victory speech, she made it very clear that she intended to do what Arizonans were clamoring for: focus on common goals and bridge the political divides in her state. Arizonans, she recognized, simply wanted the state to work as it should, and to work without all hyper-partisan nuttery that is Washington:

As your Senator, that’s exactly what I’ll do. Not by calling names or playing political games, but by showing up and doing the work to keep Arizona moving forward.

So far she has charted her own course. Too bad for her, though, that’s against the Party rules. As a result of being a political centrist, the Progressive Caucus wing of Arizona Democratic Party are up in arms, and have submitted a resolution of censure:

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is facing a censure vote from the Arizona Democratic Party, brought by progressives who deem her politics too accommodating to President Donald Trump at the expense of Democratic values.

[…]

The Arizona Democratic Party is planning to hold a vote this week to determine whether Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) should be censured.

The Arizona Republic reports the censure vote is due to the fact that progressives in the state Democratic Party see her as too accommodating to President Trump and his policies.

Those seeking to censure Sinema point to her vote to confirm David Bernhardt, Trump’s nominee to serve as secretary of the Interior, as well as her vote to confirm William Barr as Attorney General, the news outlet notes.

Additionally, progressives in the Arizona Democratic Party cite Sinema’s resistance to joining fellow Democrats in trying to reinstate net neutrality rules to prevent internet service providers from throttling websites.

Here is precisely what’s bothering Democrats:

FiveThirtyEight’s Trump Tracker found that Sinema has opposed Trump during her time in the Senate 81 percent of the time. During her time in the House, where she served three terms, she supported Trump’s agenda 54% of the time.

Dan O’Neal, the state coordinator for Progressive Democrats of America, asserts that Sinema’s centrist ways are unacceptable:

“Here’s the thing: We really support Kyrsten Sinema, we want her to succeed, we want her to be the best senator in the country,” O’Neal said. “But the way she is voting is really disappointing. We want Democrats to vote like Democrats and not Republicans.”

In contrast to O’Neals’s observations, Arizona’s Democratic Party chairwoman, Felecia Rotellini, demonstrated a little of her own independent thinking when discussing the censure (which she isn’t convinced will pass):

“We are a very diverse group and that means diversity of thought, as well,” Rotellini said. “I don’t think it reflects poorly on the party at all, I don’t think it’s an indication of a fracture. I think it’s an indication of a group of people who think differently and have a different perspective on the same topic.”

Here is the resolution. The vote to bring it to the floor will be held on Saturday.

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana

31 Responses to “Arizona Progressive Dems Target Sen. Kyrsten Sinema: No Independent Thinking Allowed”

  1. Will we ever have more than two parties (in play)?

    Dana (fdf131)

  2. She has strayed from her party’s line more often than I thought she would.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  3. Jeff Flake and John McCain were unavailable for comment.

    Dave (ee0996)

  4. Arizona is like that.

    nk (dbc370)

  5. They really dont like hot democrats. Thats a shorter explanation, you would think they would appreciate someone whose beem able to take the seat in 30 years

    Narciso (7658f4)

  6. She has strayed from her party’s line more often than I thought she would.

    Yes, I was incredibly critical of her in the run-up to last fall’s election, but so far she has surprised me with how reasonable she can oftentimes be.

    JVW (54fd0b)

  7. She’s been the most pleasant surprise of the 2016 elections. A liberal who seems to love the USA for all its faults and who also cares about all her constituents regardless of party or politics.

    harkin (8f010c)

  8. Change 2016 to 2018 above.

    harkin (8f010c)

  9. She’s a maverick!

    Paul Montagu (dfd657)

  10. JVW (54fd0b) — 9/17/2019 @ 7:32 pm

    My forbidden Dem babe crush is hawter than yours.

    Dave (da7717)

  11. My gal is red hot!
    Your gal ain’t doodely squat

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  12. sinema has been a dino for years. from greenie to dino what ever it takes.

    lany (9b6e6a)

  13. She defeated Martha McSally, who was weakened by Alt Right displeasure with her center-right voting pattern in her swing CD. The wingnuts of both parties do themselves great harm, but they don’t care because they’d rather be right.

    Kevin M (19357e)

  14. Will we ever have more than two parties (in play)?

    Only in transition. There is an opportunity now for a center-right or center-lib party looking to replace the GOP which has wandered off the trail. The GOP is too strong though, and any third party on the right wouldn’t last much past Trump, and would merge back in over time.

    Kevin M (19357e)

  15. Will we ever have more than two parties (in play)?

    From 1816 to maybe 1836 we only had one party until Jackson pulled a Trump.

    Kevin M (19357e)

  16. @15 Ask clinton and al gore if we don’t have a third party. The green party. Nader and jill stein were not alowed on debates and msdnc wouldn’t allow jill stein on maddow or laurence ;but it didn’t matter. Oh bye the way bye bye bibi.

    lany (9b6e6a)

  17. 5, that’s also the secret sauce for Michigan gubernatorial elections since 2002 in a “Rust Belt 10” kind of way.

    Speaking of rust belt elections, hopefully there is no direct translation of Detroit, Milwaukee and Car Trunk in Hebrew.

    urbanleftbehind (ba7b72)

  18. JVW (54fd0b) — 9/17/2019 @ 7:32 pm

    My forbidden Dem babe crush is hawter than yours.
    Dave (da7717) — 9/17/2019 @ 9:58 pm

    But JVW’s taboo tahini likes guys. Yours digs chicks.

    nk (dbc370)

  19. Wish we had more independent-minded congress creatures all over the US.

    JRH (52aed3)

  20. Well he followed her to the station
    And he looked her in teh eye
    Yeah he followed her to the station
    And he looked her in teh eye
    Oh, it’s hard to tell, it’s hard to tell
    When all your love’s in vain

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  21. Here are Ms. Sinema’s thought crimes, per the resolution:

    1. She voted for Barr’s confirmation.

    2. She doesn’t support “net neutrality”. (In other words, in the Silicon Valley battle of the titans, she supports Comcast/AT&T/Verizon over Google/Netflix.)

    3. She voted for the Interior Secretary’s confirmation.

    Golly, seems like this person is Literally Hitler.

    Appalled (d07ae6)

  22. If it weren’t that it’s more than five years before she stands for reelection, I’d say that she paid them to do it.

    nk (dbc370)

  23. Yes shes firmly in the olivia wilde (whose mom is too moonbat for virginia cockburn) and an actual witch, still more dependable than fidelopflake

    Narciso (df3ce3)

  24. The Arizona Republic reports the censure vote is due to the fact that progressives in the state Democratic Party see her as too accommodating to President Trump and his policies.

    …Sinema has opposed Trump during her time in the Senate 81 percent of the time. During her time in the House, where she served three terms, she supported Trump’s agenda 54% of the time.

    IOW, she reliably votes Democrat 80% of the time, which is a big “improvement” from her previous record, and that’s STILL not enough? What are AZ Democrats smoking?

    alanstorm (807d6f)

  25. But JVW’s taboo tahini likes guys. Yours digs chicks.

    What do you mean “But”?

    Dave (1bb933)

  26. but
    /bət/
    conjunction
    conjunction: but
    1.
    used to introduce a phrase or clause contrasting with what has already been mentioned.
    “he stumbled but didn’t fall”.

    nk (dbc370)

  27. But JVW’s taboo tahini likes guys. Yours digs chicks too.

    FTFY.

    It’s a feature, not a bug.

    Dave (1bb933)

  28. “He split the atom, but opened a can of worms.”

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  29. “He was a right-handed batter, but hit left-handed, as well.”

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  30. All that that “censure” means is that there might be a primary challenge – except thast the her seat isn’t up till 2024. So that’s mostly aimed at other people. Could be even not members of Congress, but heir own membership. There must be some particular issue involved.

    Sammy Finkelman (102c75)

  31. Confirmations? Net neutrality? This can’t be the real issues.

    Sammy Finkelman (102c75)


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