Today Ron Hansen at the Arizona Republic reports on Kyrsten Sinema’s chance (or lack thereof) for reelection after months of explosive reporting about her use of campaign funds on personal expenses, upholding the filibuster to obstruct our most basic rights, and traveling to Europe to meet with billionaires.
“Arizonans are tired of Sinema consistently choosing corporate interests, Republicans, and billionaires over their basic needs,” said Sacha Haworth, spokesperson for Replace Sinema. “Why Sinema continues to play coy about her election plans is another matter: maybe it gives her more time to amass millions from Wall Street billionaires, plot strategy with No Labels, or commission more polls that show her losing. Either way, we say bring it on: we’re ready to replace her with the kind of leadership Arizona deserves.”
Sinema notably has a history of putting herself, donors, and lobbyists first and Arizonans last: a 37-page handbook for her Senate staff leaked last year detailed the amount of time she allots for constituent meetings (3 minutes) versus that for lobbyists (20 minutes), her weekly hour-long appointments with the Senate personal masseuse, and her unwillingness to work past 6:30 pm. The handbook also prompted an ethics complaint filed by 13 advocacy groups for her alleged abuse of staff, including requiring them to do her grocery shopping, make sure she is fed at all times, and fix her internet.
ARIZONA REPUBLIC: LUXURY TRIPS, FINE WINES ARE NOW PART OF SEN. KYRSTEN SINEMA’S IMAGE. WILL VOTERS CARE?
Ron Hansen // July 13, 2023
EXCERPTS:
News accounts, social media and campaign finance reports have connected [Sinema] to a lavish lifestyle beyond the reach of most Arizonans and more in line with the titans in the financial industry she helps oversee.
She missed several Senate votes to compete in a triathlon in New Zealand and later sought campaign money while staying in a luxury hotel in Paris. She studied winemaking in Sonoma, Calif., during the first summer of the COVID-19 pandemic.
[…] [A]ccounts in the New York Post of Sinema spending more than $100,000 in campaign funds on wine, hotels, and other luxury expenses since joining the Senate help reinforce an evolving image.
[…] Surprise resident Martha Y. Scott, a Democrat, is among those who have soured on Sinema.
She said she voted for Sinema in 2018, but is dismayed by the senator Sinema has become.
A retiree who worked in hospital management, Scott said Sinema’s travel habits and voting pattern reminds her of recent coverage of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his close relations with Texas billionaire Harlan Crow.
Crow, who also is a Sinema donor, paid tuition costs and provided luxury travel and lodging for Thomas in a series of unreported gifts that has prompted calls for an ethics policy for the high court. To Scott, Sinema seems disconnected from her former base.
“I was a big fan of hers. I was so proud of her when she got in (the Senate) and then all of a sudden she turned and I just couldn’t understand why. It’s like she’s a Republican,” Scott said. “I want people I can identify with. She’s a sellout.”
A political action committee supporting Rep. Ruben Gallego, the Arizona Democrat who is running for Sinema’s seat, has filed a complaint to the Federal Election Commission over Sinema’s spending habits.
[…] In the age of instant outrage on social media, Sinema has been roasted for what is cast as a flippant thumbs down on the Senate floor in a vote seeking to raise the federal minimum wage and traveling to Davos, Switzerland, to speak to the world’s wealthiest people.
[…] In December, shortly after Sinema announced she had left the Democratic Party, the Daily Beast reported on a 37-page memo that at some point instructed Sinema’s staffers on her scheduling needs.
It reportedly included booking an hourlong, weekly massage, stacking three-minute constituent meetings into a 30-minute window on Wednesdays and only staying at hotels with pools of a certain size.
A Sinema spokesperson would not confirm the memo’s authenticity, but the image of a pampered senator has stayed with her critics.
[…] Long before her 2018 Senate triumph, Sinema jokingly described herself as a “Prada socialist,” hinting at an appetite for finer things.
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