The Arizona Democratic Party (ADP) is putting pressure on Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) in order to coerce her into opposing the Senate filibuster, voting for President Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion “human infrastructure” bill, and supporting multiple voting related bills. They issued a resolution which threatens to give her a vote of no confidence, censure her, and withdraw support of her reelection if she fails to comply by the next state committee meeting in January 2022.
The resolution states in part:
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED – that the Arizona Democratic Party will closely watch Senator Sinema’s votes in the coming weeks and if Senator Sinema, does not vote in favor of Filibuster reform to change the Senate rules in order to allow the passage of The For The People Act – voting rights bill, the John Lewis Voting Rights Bill, or other urgent legislation, for example the PRO ACT, that has already passed by the House or if she votes against the Senate Reconciliation Budget Bill, also referred to as the Human Infrastructure Package or the American Families Plan supported by President Biden and the vast majority of Democrats in both the House and the Senate, or if she continues to delay, disrupt, or votes to gut the Reconciliation Package of its necessary funding, then the Arizona Democratic Party State Committee will go officially on record and will give Senator Sinema a vote of NO CONFIDENCE.
Sinema and the other member of the Senate also well-known for being a moderate Democrat, Joe Manchin (D-WV), have been meeting with Biden multiple times over the last few days in order to negotiate reductions in the $3.5 trillion bill to make it acceptable to them to vote for. They are the only two Democrats who have not agreed to vote for it.
Conservative political commentator Mark Levin called the bill a “Ponzi scheme.” He said members of Congress don’t even know what’s in it. He outlined Sinema and Manchin’s role, “And the hope is that one Democrat senator from West Virginia and one Democrat senator from Arizona will save the republic. Is that what this country is supposed to be about?”
Sinema refused to vote to eliminate the filibuster earlier this year, making it impossible to get voting legislation passed. The ADP referred to the filibuster multiple times in its proclamation as racist, calling it the “Jim Crow filibuster.” The organization passed a resolution calling for the end of it with 91 percent support. Some progressives started a Primary Sinema political action committee to fund other Democrats challenging her if she doesn’t agree to end the filibuster. The far left group Just Democracy spent over a million dollars on ads in June attacking her for “supporting a Jim Crow relic.”
Sinema raised the ire of those in her party in recent years over her opposition to several high-profile Democratic bills. This past summer, dozens of progressives participated in rolling protests outside her office, resulting in the arrests of almost 50 people.
When questioned about her actions by The New York Times, Sinema’s spokesperson defended her maverick reputation. “Kyrsten has always promised Arizonans she would be an independent voice for the state — not for either political party,” John LaBombard said. The editor and publisher of Talking Points Memo predicted earlier this month that Sinema may become an independent.
Sinema transformed over the years from a far left politician to a maverick, often compared to the late Sen. John McCain. In the 2000s, she was awarded the “Vladimir I. Lenin Award” by the Arizona Federation of Taxpayers, which was presented annually to the furthest left Arizona legislator. However, her lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union is a 14.59, which is middle of the road for a Democratic member of Congress, and isn’t much different than when she first entered Congress in 2013.
Arizona still has more registered Republicans than Democrats, and other than a handful of exceptions in 2020, such as the presidential race and other Senate race which are still under scrutiny with a ballot audit and now attorney general investigation, most of the statewide races as well as races in Maricopa County were carried by Republicans. Kirk Adams, a former Republican speaker of the Arizona House, explained, “She is a Democratic senator elected in a center-right state.”
– – –
Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Kyrsten Sinema” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
