Here’s our reaction to the below: “It’s clear that Sinema was scheming with Mitch McConnell for months in advance of her party switch. No wonder she flew to Kentucky to sing McConnell’s praises just weeks before the election instead of helping Arizona Democrats beat pro-insurrectionist MAGA extremists at home. Just another reason why Arizonans cannot trust her to defend them in the Senate. Sinema is only out for herself.” – Sacha Haworth, senior advisor for the Replace Sinema campaign // Change for Arizona 2024 PAC (formerly known as “Primary Sinema”)
ICYMI:
Washington Post – Sinema’s switch was months in the making. Now it’s a challenge for Democrats.
Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Liz Goodwin // December 18, 2022
EXCERPTS:
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema caught many by surprise earlier this month when she announced she was leaving the Democratic Party […] But the decision was months in the making, according to current and former aides and allies close to the senator from Arizona, and it reflected Sinema’s longtime dissatisfaction with the Democratic Party. […]
The unhappiness has run in both directions and loomed over Sinema’s political future, prompting some critics to see a calculated ploy for survival in Sinema’s announcement. She is unpopular with Democrats back home following some high-profile party-line defections. Polls also suggested she could lose a Democratic primary if she sought reelection in 2024 — a hurdle she would no longer need to clear as an independent. […]
Sinema had been weighing a departure from the Democratic Party for months, people familiar with the timing said. By the fall, planning was underway, even before Sinema appeared in late September at the University of Louisville McConnell Center, where she defended her centrist brand of politics — and further enraged some liberals — with the Republican Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, looking on.
McConnell advises Sinema frequently, according to a person familiar with their relationship, and the two spoke about her decision to defend the legislative filibuster and other matters. “She and I talk all the time,” McConnell told reporters Tuesday.
High-ranking Democrats said they remained in the dark until just before she pulled the trigger. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) learned she would be leaving the party the day before she announced it, he said recently. White House aides have declined to say whether President Biden received a heads up […]
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) declined to say whether Sinema warned him that she was leaving the party and, like most Democrats, did not answer a question about whether he would support her if she runs for reelection as an independent.[…]
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