Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Rep. Sinema Only Arizona Democrat To Condemn Obama Administration's Bergdahl/Taliban Prisoner Exchange

Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-CD9) was the only of the five Democrats in the Arizona Congressional delegation to break ranks and vote with all of the House Republicans to condemn and disapprove of how the Obama Administration pulled off the exchange that returned U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl to the U.S. in return for freeing five Taliban prisoners held at Guantanamo.

The House voted 249-163 this afternoon to "condem(n) and disapprov(e) of the failure of the Obama administration to comply with the lawful 30-day statutory reporting requirement in executing the transfer of five senior members of the Taliban" and expressing "grave concern over the repercussions of negotiating with terrorists".  The entire text of the resolution is below.

Sinema is one of 22 Democrats to vote for the resolution.  The Hill's one-sentence teaser for their article says "the Democratic defectors were largely a who's who of endangered incumbents."

However, Sinema is considered only the 3rd most endangered incumbent in Arizona; neither Reps. Ron Barber (D-CD2) nor Ann Kirkpartick (D-CD1) voted for the condemnation.  Both Barber and Kirkpatrick are in races that have been rated as "toss-ups" by one or more national independent handicappers; Sinema's CD9 is generally listed as "leans Democratic".






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