| PHOENIX — Over the weekend, the New York Times published a bombshell story highlighting Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s recent campaign contributions from millionaire and billionaire G.O.P. donors. The story, written by Kenneth P. Vogel and Kate Kelly, outlines the “profound” influence that Sinema and Manchin have had on cutting Biden’s agenda at the same time that they’ve seen a significant increase in funding from Republican donors. One billionaire G.O.P. donor who gave to Sinema in September told the New York Times, “Those are two good people — Manchin and Sinema — and I think we need more of those in the Democratic Party.” Vogel and Kelly also revealed that one Wall Street executive joked that the industry refers to Sinema as “Saint Sinema” because of her opposition to most of Biden’s tax plans on the wealthy. In response to this reporting, the Primary Sinema Project released the following statement: “If billionaire G.O.P. donors are eager to talk you up to the New York Times and Wall Street executives nickname you ‘Saint Sinema,’ you are clearly doing something wrong. But let’s be clear: the thousands that Sinema is raking in from G.O.P. donors will not be enough to buy her another term — because we are fighting back and the will of the people in Arizona will win.” Read the New York Times article here and excerpts below: G.O.P. Donors Back Manchin and Sinema as They Reshape Biden’s Agenda By: Kenneth P. Vogel and Kate KellyThe two Democratic senators are attracting campaign contributions from business interests and conservatives as progressives fume over their efforts to pare back the president’s domestic policy bill. Over the summer, as he was working to scale back President Biden’s domestic agenda, Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia traveled to an $18 million mansion in Dallas for a fund-raiser that attracted Republican and corporate donors who have cheered on his efforts. In September, Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who along with Mr. Manchin has been a major impediment to the White House’s efforts to pass its package of social and climate policy, stopped by the same home to raise money from a similar cast of donors for her campaign coffers. Even as Ms. Sinema and Mr. Manchin, both Democrats, have drawn fire from the left for their efforts to shrink and reshape Mr. Biden’s proposals, they have won growing financial support from conservative-leaning donors and business executives in a striking display of how party affiliation can prove secondary to special interests and ideological motivations when the stakes are high enough. […] But the stream of cash to the campaigns of Ms. Sinema and Mr. Manchin from outside normal Democratic channels stands out because many of the donors have little history with them. The financial support is also notable for how closely tied it has been to their power over a single piece of legislation, the fate of which continues to rest largely with the two senators because their party cannot afford to lose either of their votes in the evenly divided Senate. Their influence has been profound. The domestic policy bill, which would expand the social safety net and efforts to fight climate change, started out at $3.5 trillion and has been shrunk — mainly at the insistence of Mr. Manchin — to around $2 trillion; it could get smaller as the Senate takes up the version passed on Friday by the House. New spending measures were originally to have been paid for mostly through tax-rate increases on the wealthy and corporations — a component of the plan that had to be substantially rewritten because of Ms. Sinema’s opposition. […] Mr. Manchin has long been to the right of his party on litmus-test issues like abortion rights and fossil fuels, while Ms. Sinema started her political career as a liberal activist before shifting to the center. One Wall Street executive joked that in his industry, Ms. Sinema — who as a young politician once likened political donations to “bribery” — was now referred to as “Saint Sinema” for opposing most of Mr. Biden’s proposed taxes on the wealthy. (She has, however, supported a 15 percent corporate minimum tax and other revenue-raising measures that will help pay for Mr. Biden’s legislative spending.) READ THE WHOLE STORY HERE: LINK |