Sen. Kyrsten Sinema faces censure vote from Arizona Democratic Party
Sep 18, 2019, 8:02 AM | Updated: 9:19 am
(AP Photo)
(AP Photo)
PHOENIX – U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is facing repercussion from members of her own Arizona state party, who want her censured for what they say is failing Democrats.
The Progressive Caucus of the Arizona Democratic Party said in a resolution that Sinema was not supporting “the tenets of the 2016 Democratic Party Platform.”
The resolution will be considered Saturday at the state committee meeting in Prescott.
Sinema, who was elected last November, was taken to task for voting to confirm President Donald Trump’s choice, William Barr, as the country’s attorney general.
That, according to the resolution, showed she supported Trump’s opposition to the investigation of the 2016 presidential election.
“There is the left and there is the crazy left, and the crazy left … is unhappy with Senator Sinema (in regards to Trump) and wants her to know it,” Phoenix political consultant Stan Barnes told KTAR News 92.3 FM on Wednesday.
“The Progressive Caucus is very concerned with Kyrsten Sinema’s voting record. We love her, as we love all Democrats, but we want her to vote like a Democrat rather than supporting Trump half the time,” Dan O’Neal of the Progressive Caucus told ABC15 on Tuesday.
The caucus also pointed to her being the only Democrat not co-sponsoring restoration of net neutrality rules.
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“It’s hard not to see a parallel here,” KTAR political analyst Mike O’Neil told Arizona’s Morning News. “The far right of the Republican Party successfully censured (Sen.) John McCain.”
The Arizona Republican Party censured McCain in January 2014, calling his bipartisan record “disastrous and harmful.”
“If you vote centrist, then the people at the more extremity of your own parties are not going to be happy.”
Statistical analysis website FiveThirtyEight found that Sinema has voted in line with the president 19% this year.
As a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 2017 to 2018, that number was 62.6%. She spent six years in the House.
Sinema declined to comment on the resolution.
