Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Sinema Running For McCain's Senate Seat in 2016, According To Washington Post Columnist

Arizona Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-CD9) is going to run for John McCain's Senate seat in 2016, according to a well-known Washington Post columnist.  Chris Cillizza bases his prediction on Sinema's failure to vote for Nancy Pelosi as House Speaker yesterday.

Arizona's Politics was the first to report on Sinema's vote for civil rights leader and Georgia Rep. John Lewis, and noted that her symbolic vote followed in the footsteps of retired Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

Cillizza made a list of "6 Things I Learned From the Speaker Vote" this afternoon, and listed Sinema as #4. Since it's short, here's the entire thing:
4. Kyrsten Sinema is running for the Senate in 2016. Sinema, who represents the swing 9th district in Arizona, is widely regarded as a potential Senate candidate for the Democrats in 2016. She did nothing but fan that fire Tuesday when she was one of only a handful of Democrats to vote for someone other than Nancy Pelosi as speaker. In explaining her vote for Georgia Rep. John Lewis, Sinema said in a statement: “The courage to take a principled stand for what is right is something I believe in deeply. I am proud of Congressman Lewis’s shared commitment and I was honored to cast my vote for him today.” Left unsaid is that by not voting for Pelosi, Sinema robs national Republicans of a cudgel by which to bash her as beholden to the liberal national Democratic leadership if she does run for Senate. (Unrelated but awesome: Sinema's twirl on the House floor, as captured by CSPAN's Jeremy Art.)
True, Cillizza probably has not kept a close eye on Sinema's other votes (or, co-sponsorships), and probably did not do an in-depth analysis of her last election or her next POSSIBLE one.  (If he had, he may have reached the conclusion much earlier. Orrrr, he might have realized that this is just consistent with where the Congresswoman believes she should be to represent the swing 9th CD.)

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