Where are we coming from? On the challenges of running the democrats in the Arizona House of Representatives, Alya Sinema’s “Letting go of outcomes”

The party has had issues with Sinema on some pieces of legislation. She was censured by the Arizona Democratic Party after she objected to the change of the filibuster. Most of the time, she has voted with Democrats.

Transcending fear and anger is an excellent spiritual goal. But becoming a more centered and fabulous person is a political project only when it’s directed toward aims beyond oneself. With Sinema, it’s not remotely clear what those aims might be, or if they exist. The chapter called “Letting go of outcomes” is in her book. Sinema gave interviews to CNN, Politico and The Arizona Republic while announcing her new independent status. Nowhere have I seen her articulate substantive differences with the Democrats, aside from her opposition to tax increases. Instead, she spoke about not fitting into a box, being true to herself, and wanting to work, as she told Politico, without the “pressures or the poles of a party structure.”

It is true, this is who she has always been. Over time, Sinema’s politics have changed from Green Party progressivism to pro-corporate centrism. Her approach to elected office isn’t a way to refine the self.

Sinema says she didn’t make her decision because of the win but the timing suggesting she won’t caucus with Republicans is a bit odd.

“When politicians are more focused on denying the opposition party a victory than they are on improving Americans’ lives, the people who lose are everyday Americans,” Sinema wrote.

Sinema is less popular in Arizona than Biden or Kelly, and Democratic polling shows her getting trounced in a head-to-head battle against Gallego, in a Democratic primary.

Sinema said she was not worried about people who didn’t like the approach. I am worried about what will happen to my state. And there are folks who certainly don’t like my approach, we hear about it a lot. But the proof is in the pudding.”

Sinema and Manchin used their sway in the current 50-50 Senate – where any single Democrat could derail a bill – to influence a host of legislation, especially the massive $3.5 trillion Build Back Better bill that Biden proposed last year. Sinema’s objections to increasing the corporate tax rate during the initial round of negotiations over the legislation last year particularly rankled liberals.

Sinema was not aware of the deal that Manchin made with Schumer for major health care and energy legislation, but she supported the small package Biden signed into law before the election.

Reply to Comment on ‘I am glad to be here” by A.C. Sinema in the AP-Peaked Appropriate’

She told CNN that she has been honored to lead historic efforts from infrastructure, to gun violence prevention, to protecting religious liberty and helping LGBT families feel secure. “The list is really long. And so I think that the results speak for themselves. It’s OK if some people aren’t comfortable with that approach.”

Sinema’s move isn’t likely to affect the power balance of the Senate as Democrats hold a 51-47 majority. The independents who caucus with them are SenatorBernie Sanders ofVermont and SenatorAlis King of Maine.

In making her announcement, Sinema gave no hint of her future plans. And rather than a re-positioning for future races, it may well be a prelude to a career change for a politician without a partisan home.

In the past two years, she and other moderate Democrats have been criticized for being obstructionists in the way of President Biden’s agenda by frequently holding up or objecting to parts of legislation.

“My approach is rare in Washington and has upset partisans in both parties,” she acknowledged in Friday’s op-ed. “It is also an approach that has delivered lasting results for Arizona.”

More than most of her colleagues, Sinema has worked easily across party lines in the Senate, helping to forge significant bipartisan legislation on a variety of issues, including infrastructure, gun control and most recently, same-sex marriage.

And she named several areas in which her position and priorities remain steadfast — for example, that “a woman’s health care decision should be between her, her doctor and her family” and her work to “secure the southern border, ensure fair and humane treatment for migrants and permanently protect ‘Dreamers.’

“If anyone previously supported me because they believed, contrary to my promise, that I would be a blindly loyal vote for a partisan agenda – or for those who believe our state should be represented by partisans who push divisive, negative politics, regardless of the impact on our state – then there are sure to be others vying for your support,” she added.

The Isakrod era of the Axe Files: How Senator Sinema Left the U.S. Senate and Its Importance to Republicans

David Isakrod, a senior political commentator and host of “The Axe Files”, was a chief strategist for the 2008 and 2012 Obama presidential campaigns. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. CNN has more opinion on it.

Whether through her colorful and flamboyant attire or the keep-them-guessing, idiosyncratic politics that drives many of her Democratic colleagues nuts, the Arizona senator knows how to make a splash.

The Senate Democrats were delighted when she left the party and registered as an independent, but that was interrupted by her announcement Friday.

As it is, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer relies on the votes of two other senators who caucus with Democrats but are technically independents – Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an icon of the progressive left, and Angus King, a moderate from Maine. Sinema has joined their ranks.

So in keeping with her habit of standing out by standing apart, Sinema’s declaration seems meant more as a statement about hyperpartisanship than an institution-shifting change of position.

The compromises were commendable, but they are not incentives for bipartisanship in today’s party politics, which is dominated by more ideological voters.

Arizona is a state where independents and moderate Republicans are very important. More than one third of the state’s voters identify as “other,” and Republicans outnumber Democrats by more than 166,000.

The Betrayal of a Democrat Candidate: When a Woman Turnes Down a Senate Measure to Increase the Minimum Wage

In Sinema’s 2009 book “Unite and Conquer: How to Build Coalitions That Win — and Last,” she described giving up shrill partisanship, which was making her unhappy, for a vaguely New Age ethos that prized inner tranquillity. The chapter “Letting go of the bear and picking up the Buddha” was about the bear representing fear and anger. “Picking up the Buddha (becoming a super centered political actor) makes you a stronger, more effective you,” she wrote. “To be your most fabulous political self, you’ll need to learn to recognize the bear and learn to let go of it in your work.”

When she theatrically turned a thumbs-down on a Senate vote in March 2021 to increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour, it was the last straw for her party’s base. When she skipped votes to participate in Ironman triathlons or spent weeks as an intern at a Sonoma County winery, it served only to cement her reputation among progressives that she had removed herself from the concerns of working-class Arizonans.

In the fall of 2021, activists from LUCHA confronted Ms. Sinema at Arizona State University. Activists followed Ms. Sinema into a bathroom and demanded that she explain why she had not done more to push for a pathway to citizenship for about eight million undocumented immigrants. The protesters said they had taken the drastic action only because Ms. Sinema did not hold town-hall meetings or answer calls from constituents. Protesters have also chased her through airports and followed her into a high-priced fund-raising event at an upscale resort.

“We are not surprised that she would once again center herself,” said Alejandra Gomez, the executive director of LUCHA. This is another act that is selfish and unfortunate. It is yet another betrayal — there have been a slew of betrayals, but this is one of the ultimates, because voters elected her as Democrat, and she turned her back on those voters.”

“I love that she’s going to be even freer now to just do the right thing,” said Tammy Caputi, a Scottsdale City Council member who is herself a political independent, adding that Ms. Sinema had long been leery of being “straitjacketed by partisan politics.”

Those weren’t quotes from her announcement Friday. Those were from one of her widely run 2018 Senate campaign ads (which is still at the top of her YouTube page).

She’s not the first senator to switch parties – Jim Jeffords of Vermont defected from the GOP 20-plus years ago, giving control of the Senate to Democrats.

Facing a difficult reelection, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania left the Republican Party in 2009 to become a Democrat. The Democrats had a 60-vote majority that helped pass the health care bill after Al Franken won a seat in Minnesota.

Lieberman left the Democrats after being selected as their vice-presidential nominee in 2004. The writing was on the wall for a while with Lieberman and Democrats. When he visited Arizona in 2003, for example, right as the Iraq war was starting – a war he voted for and defended – he was greeted by anti-war protests.

“He’s a shame to Democrats,” the organizer of the protest said. I have no idea why he’s running. What strategy is he trying to get the Republicans to vote for him?

She hopes removing the “D” from her name will improve her reputation back home, but it is possible that the change could lead to a Republican being elected senator from Arizona in 2024.

On Capitol Hill the deregistration won’t make much of a difference. Because incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock won his runoff election in Georgia, Democrats still have firm control of the chamber, 50-49.

On the Future of the Lowest-Democracy House and Senate: The Case for a Democratic Candidate Like Sinema

But while the party has gotten more liberal over the last 50 years and both parties have become more ideologically cohesive, Republicans have gotten far more conservative than Democrats have become liberal in that time, according to an analysis by the Pew Research Center.

Since 2002, there’s no overlap between the least liberal Democrats in the House and the least conservative Republicans. In the Senate, the end of overlap came in 2004, when Democrat Zell Miller of Georgia retired. Ever since, the gaps between the least conservative Republicans and least liberal Democrats in both the House and Senate have widened – making it ever less likely that there’s any common ground to find.”

She voted with the party 93% of the time, which is not even the lowest of other Democrats (or those who caucus with them). Sens. Sanders, Jackie Rosen of Nevada, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, Jon Tester of Montana and Joe Manchin of West Virginia all have voted with the party to a lesser degree, albeit slightly, according to a tally by 538.

It’s certainly good publicity for someone with low approval ratings – just 37% overall, including 41% of independents, approved of the job Sinema was doing, according to a bipartisan survey conducted by Impact Research and Fabrizio Ward.

Mark Kelly, who was reelected to the Arizona Senate, appealed to the middle on a number of occasions, for example, dividing himself from the Biden administration border policies.

One benefit is that by declaring herself an independent and deregistering with the Democratic Party, she would avoid that primary competition and buy herself a go-straight-to-general-election pass, provided she can meet the higher signature threshold for an independent to qualify to get on the ballot.

Without party support, Sinema could be seen as part of a political no man’s land. But she’s banking on her brand being enough to pull from moderates on both sides.