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(For all those DSA'ers dreaming about how the DP will become the party
of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders, the reality is that the
momentum is behind people like Kyrsten Sinema, who is a disgusting
nativist opportunist. Well, who knows if she really hates immigrants. It
is entirely possible that she became a nativist to get votes in the same
way that FDR downplayed civil rights to mollify the Dixiecrats. In any
case, it just shows the futility of trying to turn the DP into a social
democratic vehicle.)
NY Times, Nov. 14, 2018
How Kyrsten Sinema Won Her Senate Seat and Pulled Off a Historic Arizona
Triumph
By Simon Romero
PHOENIX — Kyrsten Sinema’s first foray into politics ended in failure
when she campaigned as an antiwar activist and finished dead last out of
five candidates in a race for a seat in the Arizona Legislature.
Sixteen years later, Ms. Sinema has achieved a historic political
triumph, becoming the first woman ever to represent Arizona in the
Senate, and the first Democrat from the state to win a Senate seat since
the 1980s.
How did Ms. Sinema do it? She transformed herself into a conservative
Democrat who ran a disciplined campaign designed to attract Republican
and independent voters who were frustrated with President Trump. And she
capitalized on a changing Arizona, where the grip that Republicans have
long had on the suburbs around Phoenix may be weakening.
“Sinema is the single best politician in Arizona today,” said Stan
Barnes, a longtime Republican strategist in Phoenix. “She has a
magnetism that can win people over.”
Beyond Ms. Sinema’s talent at working a room, Democrats and Republicans
around the United States are now trying to decipher whether her defeat
of her Republican opponent, Martha McSally, offers a kind of playbook
that others with similar ambitions can study.
Ms. Sinema finished last in her first campaign in 2002 for a seat in the
Arizona House of Representatives as an independent affiliated with the
Green Party.
But she switched to the Democratic Party in 2004 and won a seat in the
state Legislature. Ms. Sinema began showing an independent streak,
speaking openly about her sexuality — she will be the first openly
bisexual member of Congress — and her belief in secular government.
While Ms. Sinema was raised in a Mormon family, she now ascribes to no
religion.
Ms. Sinema, 42, gained a reputation for working with ideological rivals
in the Republican-controlled chamber while marking up wins like the
defeat of a measure that would have banned the recognition of same-sex
marriage and civil unions in Arizona.
She then won a seat in 2012 in the United States House of
Representatives, campaigning against a Republican opponent who accused
her of practicing “pagan rituals” during antiwar protests. Ms. Sinema
took the temperature of her Phoenix district, which included many
Republicans and independent voters, and moved further to the center once
in Washington.
While describing herself as bipartisan, her pro-business votes won her a
rare endorsement for a Democrat from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce when
she ran for re-election in 2014. She joined the Blue Dog Coalition, the
group comprising relatively conservative Democrats, and drew criticism
from the left for a voting record in which she often sided with
President Trump and other Republicans.
Meanwhile, other forces were reshaping Arizona’s political landscape.
Republicans still outnumber Democrats in the state, but so do
independents. Arizona, despite the bluster of some of its Republican
activists, is the state that has been home to Republicans willing
sometimes to criticize President Trump, including John McCain, the
iconic senator who died over the summer at the age of 81, and Jeff
Flake, who is vacating the seat won by Ms. Sinema.
Still, momentum seems to be on the side of Democrats, a trend that
accelerated in the closing weeks of the campaign. Since the primaries in
August, for every two voters that registered as Republicans in the
state, three registered as Democrats, according to the Arizona Secretary
of State’s office.
“I kind of smile when someone asks how Sinema pulled it off,” said
Alejandra Gomez, executive director of the Arizona Center for
Empowerment, a group that supports immigrant rights and public education.
“I mean, we pulled it off,” said Ms. Gomez, emphasizing how her group
and other grass-roots organizers registered about 190,000 people to vote
in Arizona ahead of this year’s election. “We knocked on the doors of
over a million people of color. Think about that. There’s a lot of talk
about signing up first-time voters but we went out and did it.”
Ms. Gomez said that doing so sometimes resulted in tense conversations
among organizers. Some expressed concern about asking people to vote for
Ms. Sinema, who steadfastly refused to endorse David Garcia, the liberal
Democrat who ran for governor of Arizona and lost in a landslide to the
Republican incumbent, Doug Ducey.
Then there was Ms. Sinema’s voting record on immigration issues. She was
one of only two dozen Democrats in the House who voted in favor of
Kate’s Law, a bill to expand maximum sentences for foreigners who
re-enter the country after being deported.
Ms. Sinema also voted for legislation to intensify the screening of
refugees, and co-sponsored legislation calling for regular analyses of
terrorist threats on the border with Mexico. She has also explicitly
voiced support for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal
agency that some liberals have called to abolish.
“For some people it came down to comparing Sinema to an opponent who
openly campaigned on the Trump fear tactics,” said Ms. Gomez, referring
to Ms. McSally, the Republican defeated in the Senate race. Ms. McSally,
who was viewed as a moderate ahead of the election, closely aligned
herself to Mr. Trump during the campaign.
“We helped Sinema win and now we need to be there to remind her about
this pivotal source of support,” Ms. Gomez said. “But at least we know
she’s better than the alternative.”
Ms. Sinema also adroitly handled the changing currents in Maricopa
County, which encompasses Phoenix and ranks among the fastest-growing
counties in the United States. With about 4.3 million people, Maricopa
County accounts for about 60 percent of Arizona’s overall population of
seven million.
Outside Arizona, Maricopa is still known as the home of Joe Arpaio, the
sheriff whose harsh treatment of immigrants won him accolades from the
right. Mr. Trump pardoned Mr. Arpaio after a criminal contempt conviction.
But Mr. Arpaio was clobbered by Ms. McSally in the Republican primary
for the Senate seat that Ms. Sinema has now won. And it was her ability
to win over moderate Republicans in Maricopa County that took her past
the finish line, easily outperforming other Democrats in the county.
“Sinema focused on issues that matter to suburban voters whether they’re
Republican or Democrat: health care, veterans and education,” said Kris
Mayes, a professor of practice at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law
and a former Republican appointee to the Arizona Corporation Commission.
“She had six years to hone her skills in a very purple congressional
district, and knew that she had to avoid entanglement in progressive
causes,” said Ms. Mayes, who lives in the district Ms. Sinema
represented in the House. “Essentially she’s a very disciplined
centrist. That’s the formula for a Democrat to win in this state.”
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