Democrat turned Independent (as of Dec. 9, 2022) member of the U.S. Senate from Arizona.
She assumed office on January 3, 2019. Her
current term ends on January 3, 2025. Sinema
ran for election to the U.S. Senate to
represent Arizona. She won in the general
election on November 6, 2018. She defeated
Martha McSally (R) and Angela Green (G) in
the general election, becoming the first
woman elected to a U.S. Senate seat in
Arizona. Sinema is a former Democratic
member of the U.S. House representing
Arizona's 9th Congressional District from
2013 to 2019. Sinema began her political
career in the Arizona House of
Representatives. She represented District 15
from 2005 until her election to the Arizona
State Senate in 2010. She resigned from the
state Senate on January 3, 2012, in order to
run for Congress. Prior to running for
office, Sinema was a local spokeswoman for
the Green Party.
"With waning
campaign money and
questions over
whether she'll run
for re-election at
all, Senator
Kyrsten Sinema
went on a $1million
spending spree with
those funds in the
last three months of
2023. The
independent from
Arizona, who quit
the Democrat Party
in 2022, outspent
what she raised by
nearly $200,000,
dishing out $796,565
of campaign cash in
the fourth quarter
of the year,
according to Federal
Election Commission
filings. At least
$265,521 was spent
on security costs,
including $77,000 on
a new Chevrolet and
$1,523 worth of a
tickets to events
for her bodyguards,
including $490 at
Red Rocks
Amphitheater in
Colorado. "
"The Arizona
senator has booked at least 11
private plane trips since 2020,
with five of them coming in
2023, when she spent $116,000 on
chartered air travel. According
to the reports, nearly all of
the flights were charted for
travel within Arizona, as the
senator and several of her
staffers hit several cities and
towns around the state on one-
or two-day trips. By comparison,
Sinema’s home-state
colleague, Sen. Mark Kelly
(D-AZ), appears to have never
used his Senate budget for
privately chartered flights,
even though he regularly travels
to the same places in the state
that Sinema does."
"Sinema didn’t
explain her vote against Crews in a
statement or on her usual social media
channels. A spokesperson didn’t respond
Wednesday to a request for comment."
"Ms. Sinema is
a cheat of a different kind when she conned
Arizona Democrats (and likely a substantial
amount of Independents too) by deceiving
voters out of the “vows” she pledged to them
during her campaign—a promise to promote and
protect the issues most important to
Arizona’s working men and women. Sinema
literally walked away from those vows, ran
to the skeptical arms of the Independent
Party and turned her back on every single
person who voted for her."
"After she voted with
Republicans on June 1 to kill President Joe
Biden’s student debt forgiveness plan, the
Arizona senator received at least $27,000
from political action committees related to
loan providers, banks, debt collectors and
for-profit education in the months after her
vote, Phoenix New Times found." [ . . . ]
"How Sinema uses her campaign funds
is also under fire. A May complaint with the
FEC alleged that Sinema spent $180,000 of
her campaign funds on luxury hotels, posh
resorts, Michelin-star restaurants,
international travel and winery visits. Her
office also did not respond to questions
about the complaint."
"Ms. Sinema is
a cheat of a different kind when she conned
Arizona Democrats (and likely a substantial
amount of Independents too) by deceiving
voters out of the “vows” she pledged to them
during her campaign—a promise to promote and
protect the issues most important to
Arizona’s working men and women." [ . . . ]
"Arizona Democrats, many former supporters
of Sinema have not forgotten her slap in the
face when she voted in dramatic, almost
cinematic style, when
she
mockingly curtsied, smiled and shot a
thumbs-down vote against the increasing the
minimum wage even though she had
previously said she supported it. The
Arizona State Democratic Party censured
Sinema last January for opposing the removal
of the filibuster and stating that Sinema
had failed to stand up for her constituents
in key areas such as voting rights and
holding major corporations accountable.”
""I don't care. I can
go on any board I want to. I can be a
college president. I can do anything,"
Sinema reportedly told Romney. "I saved
the Senate filibuster by myself. I saved the
Senate by myself. That's good enough for
me." Yes, preserving the brokenness of a
broken institution (House Republicans may be
the most visible disaster right now, but
never lose sight of how bad things are in
the Senate) makes Sinema a winner for life.
Also, she didn’t exactly do it all on her
own. Sen. Joe Manchin will not be denied his
credit for keeping the filibuster in place
and the Senate stuck in the mud. But also
check out Sinema’s ambitions: “I can go on
any board I want to. I can be a college
president.” Being a corporate board member
is a classic way to make a lot of money
relative to the effort you put in. And being
a college president is, like being a U.S.
senator, a job that places a premium on
schmoozing and fundraising—but for
substantially higher pay."
"Sinema
herself, when she was serving in the state
Legislature as a Democrat, was critical of
private prisons on social media in 2010 and
2011, once calling them a "disaster." In
June, CoreCivic's political action committee
donated $5,000 to Sinema, according to
Federal Election Commission records, hitting
the maximum contribution of that kind
allowed. Only four other congressional
candidates — all Republicans — have received
that amount this year from the company,
records show."
"In a blistering
attack on her Senate colleague last week,
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., warned
independent Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema
that a proposal to reduce the number of
required in-flight training hours for pilots
would result in “blood on your hands.” The
attack from Duckworth was prompted by an
amendment supported by Sinema and Sen. John
Thune, R-S.D., that would allow pilots to
meet training requirements by substituting
hours spent in a flight simulator for actual
flight time." [ . . . ] "Sinema’s campaign
received an influx of cash over the last
year from the airline industry. The
donations would be crucial to the senator as
she strikes out as a newly christened
independent during a challenging reelection
bid. Without her Democratic Party
affiliation, Sinema heads into the 2024 race
without the political or financial backing
of her former party."
"filings also reveal
that in October, Sinema spent
$70,000 on a “security detail vehicle.”
In November, she bought a second
security vehicle for a man named Lance
Polloreno. Polloreno runs an HVAC
company and has never done professional
security. He is, however, a fellow
endurance runner and his wife sits on a
board with Sinema as well."
"While it was challenging to
find Independent voters willing to speak on the
record one man who did not want to be identified
told Northeast Valley News, “he didn’t like anyone
who’s a
turncoat,” and likely would not be voting for
Sinema even though he’s been a registered
Independent for three decades."
"A new Public Policy Polling
survey in Arizona finds that Sen. Kyrsten Sinema
(I) stands to lose re-election badly in virtually
any potential matchup this November and is deeply
unpopular among voters. The survey results show that
just 27% of voters in the state view Sinema
favorably and want her to run again, compared to 50%
of Arizonans who view her unfavorably and 54% who
say she shouldn’t run again. In any likely three-way
matchup among Sinema, Ruben Gallego (D) and whatever
Republican candidate wins their primary, Sinema
appears to have virtually no chance of winning."
"The Arizona senator “has
filled her campaign coffers with Wall Street cash —
but some donors are miffed she’s spent more than
$100,000 of it on luxury hotels, private jets, limos
and fine wines,” the Post’s On the Money feature
reports. In the past two years, she has spent
$20,000 in campaign funds at high-end wineries on
the West Coast, according to On the Money, which
reviewed election finance documents. The article
also details $10,000 in spending at luxury
restaurants around the world and $45,000 on
chauffeurs. She’s been staying at resorts and
chartering flights too."
"Sen. Kyrsten Sinema
(D-Ariz.) raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars
from Wall Street firm employees, big bank PACs and
several prominent Republicans during the first three
months of 2023, according to new campaign finance
disclosures filed with the Federal Election
Commission. Arizona’s 2024 U.S. Senate race is rated
a toss-up by the Cook Political Report, setting the
stage for an expensive battle as control of the
chamber hangs on a razor-thin balance. Sinema has
not yet announced her reelection bid, but she’s
reportedly preparing to defend her seat."
"While attacks labeling her
“the worst kind of hypocrite” from former colleagues
in the Arizona legislature have died down,
her campaign
is still being hounded by angry Democratic donors
who want their money back. According to one source,
angry donors were initially told the campaign was
working on it — but now they aren’t even getting
their calls returned. Neither the senator nor
her staff are even bothering to respond anymore, a
source added. Still, Sinema — who almost
single-handedly squashed a challenge to the carried
interest loophole that taxes private equity and
hedge fund profits at a lower rate than other
businesses — may be expecting a generous payday from
her Wall Street beneficiaries"
"Since 2007, the
representative has had a consultancy with Chad
Campbell, a former legislator who backed
industry-supported bills and later lobbied for
payday lenders."
"A consortium of
political advocacy groups are pushing
for an investigation into allegations
that Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) has had
staffers running her personal errands
and performing sundry household tasks on
the taxpayer dime.
As first reported
in December by The Daily Beast,
Sinema
aides are bound by a 37-page memo that
lays out a very specific set of demands:
the senator’s groceries are to be picked
up promptly, her hour-long massages are
to be booked weekly, and her internet
service at home in D.C. must always be
in working order. (If not, an assistant
“should call Verizon to schedule a
repair” so a staff member can be there
to let a technician into her apartment,
according to the memo.)
Now, 13
progressive nonprofits—including, among
others, the Arizona Democracy Resource
Center, Sunrise Movement Tempe,
Patriotic Millionaires, and Vets
Forward—have filed a formal complaint
with the Senate Ethics Committee over
Sinema’s alleged behavior.
The accusations
“paint a picture of a Senator who is not
only unresponsive to her constituents,
but also disrespectful and even abusive
to her employees and wholly unconcerned
about her obligations under the law,”
they wrote in a three-page letter dated
Feb. 2.
“Most troubling,”
the letter alleges, Sinema, who recently
switched from the Democratic Party to
govern as an Independent, “calls on
staff members, who are employed and paid
by the public and explicitly barred from
campaign activity, to schedule and
facilitate political fundraisers and
meetings with campaign donors,
presumably during the workday while they
are on the clock and physically on
federal property.”"
[...]
"“Given that many
of the activities that the Senator has
allegedly required of staff appear to be
unambiguous violations of Senate Ethics
Committee guidelines that interpret the
rules adopted by the Senate pursuant to
the Constitution, you can understand
that we find the allegations
concerning,” the letter continues. “In
the public interest, we ask that the
Committee conduct a comprehensive and
fair investigation and, in the event
that these concerns are substantiated,
we ask the Committee to take remedial
action.”"
"Aides to the Arizona senator
were expected to get her groceries, fix her
internet, and learn her very specific preferences
for airline seats, according to an internal memo."
[...] "Craig Holman, a congressional ethics expert
with the nonprofit group Public Citizen, said
Sinema’s apparent demands that staffers conduct
personal tasks amount to a clear violation of Senate
ethics rules, and would typically warrant a formal
reprimand by the Senate Ethics Committee."
"In a statement on Friday,
Arizona Democratic Party chair Raquel Terán
acknowledged Sinema’s work on “several historic
pieces of legislation” but accused her of falling
“dramatically short” when it came to protecting
voting rights and curbing corporate power: As a
party, we welcome Independent voters and their
perspectives.
Senator Sinema may now be
registered as an Independent, but she has shown she
answers to corporations and billionaires, not
Arizonans. Senator Sinema’s party registration
means nothing if she continues to not listen to her
constituents."
"To get Sinema’s vote, and the
Inflation Reduction Act passed, Senate Majority
Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats had “no choice”
but to drop the carried interest provision from the
broader bill.
Sinema’s been fighting to help
preserve the loophole since at least last year when
she told Democratic leaders she opposed closing the
carried interest tax break. Since the start of the
2018 election cycle, she’s raked in at least $2
million from the securities and investment industry
— outraising Senate Banking Chairman Sherrod Brown’s
$770,000 in industry donations over the same time, FEC data shows."
"As Senate Democrats work to
finalize their new reconciliation package,
corporate-friendly Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is reportedly
demanding the removal of language taking aim at a
notorious tax loophole that primarily benefits rich
private equity investors and billionaire hedge fund
managers. Politico reported Wednesday that the
Arizona Democrat — a major recipient of private
equity campaign cash — “wants to nix language
narrowing the so-called carried interest loophole,”
which allows some ultra-wealthy executives to pay a
lower tax rate than ordinary employees."
"The most important thing ...
we have to change -- I believe we have to codify Roe
v. Wade in the law," Biden said during a news
conference at the NATO summit in Madrid. "And the
way to do that is to make sure the Congress votes to
do that. And if the filibuster gets in the way, it's
like voting rights -- it should be (that) we provide
an exception to this ... requiring an exception to
the filibuster for this action to deal with the
Supreme Court decision."
The plan was
quickly shot down by Sinema and Sen. Joe
Manchin, D-W.Va., who have opposed scrapping the
filibuster. Sinema's office told CNN that the
senator is "still opposed to gutting the filibuster
on any topic including on reproductive rights."
"At the same time that Arizona
Democratic Sen.
Kyrsten Sinema was standing in
opposition to Democratic efforts to raise taxes on
corporations, she was raking in campaign cash from
many of the companies lobbying against the tax
increases — corporate PACs have given Sinema more
than $2.5 million since 2021, more than one out of
every three dollars she’s raised."
"back in January, Sinema and
Manchin voted with Senate Republicans to defeat a
proposal that would have dropped the filibuster’s
60-vote threshold in order to pass voting rights
legislation. Now, with the leak of the Supreme Court
the two Democrats will again be faced with choosing
between the wishes of a majority of Americans or
sticking with an arcane, much-altered Senate rule."
""What I can't tell you is
if negotiations will start again or what they'll
look like," Sinema, D-Ariz., said at an Arizona
Chamber of Commerce and Industry luncheon at the
Arizona Biltmore resort in Phoenix. "But what I can
promise you is that I'll be the same person in
negotiations if they start again that I was in
negotiations last year.""
"A liberal group that helped
push EMILY’s List to cut ties with Sen. Kyrsten
Sinema (D-Ariz.) over her opposition to changing
Senate rules has a new target in its pressure
campaign: the Human Rights Campaign. The Arizona
Coalition to End the Filibuster has helped organize
an open letter to the LGBTQ organization, which was
first shared with POLITICO, urging it to withdraw
financial support from Sinema until she reverses her
position and supports eliminating the filibuster.
The letter also calls for donors to HRC to stop
funding the group unless it backs away from the
senator. “The toll of Sinema’s obstruction — which
HRC continues to tacitly support and thus enable —
for your constituents is growing each day,” the
letter reads, “with the filibuster blocking popular
legislation, backed by all or nearly all Democrats,
to address the urgent issues of reproductive
justice, immigrant rights, gun violence, police
reform, workers’ right to organize, raising the
minimum wage, and more.”"
"Out Sen. Kyrsten Sinema
(D-AZ), a thorn in the side of the Biden
administration and a pariah in the LGBTQ community
for her willingness to derail civil rights
legislation in favor of “bipartisanship,” has
reportedly been busted talking smack about her
fellow Democrats. [...] During a fundraiser hosted
by a group of “Republican-heavy” lobbyists, Sinema
reportedly praised GOP House Minority Leader Kevin
McCarthy (R-CA) and
Rep.
Andy Biggs (R-AZ). Biggs has repeatedly endorsed
former president Donald Trump’s “Big Lie” that Trump
actually won the election. One of the most
anti-LGBTQ members of Congress, Biggs also claimed
that the attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters
was actually a false flag operation by Antifa. “I
love Andy Biggs,” she said. “I know some people
think he’s crazy, but that’s just because they don’t
know him.""
"Kyrsten Sinema’s only
friends, it seems, are Republican donors and
executives from petrochemical firms. Her persistent
opposition to the Democratic agenda, particularly
her efforts to sink its twin centers, the Build Back
Better Act and voting rights legislation, has dried
up her grassroots donor support. According to
Politico, just over 2 percent—a meager $33,983—of
the Arizona senator’s donations in the last quarter
of 2021 came from small donors, while a PAC intent
on primarying her when she’s up for reelection in
2024 raised a whopping $180,000. At the same time,
her net favorability among Arizona Democrats has
plunged to negative-57; Mark Kelly, the state’s
other senator, boasts a 72 percent approval rating,
per a Data for Progress poll. The same poll found
that Ruben Gallego, a likely progressive primary
challenger, was currently routing Sinema 72–18 in
head-to-head polls."
"With a crucial vote
pending over filibuster rules that would
have made strong voting rights legislation
feasible, Democratic senator
Kyrsten Sinema
flew into Houston, Texas, for a fundraiser
that drew dozens of fossil fuel chieftains,
including Continental Resources chairman
Harold Hamm and ConocoPhillips chief
executive Ryan Lance. The event was held on
18 January at the upmarket River Oaks
Country Club. One executive told the
Guardian that Sinema spoke for about half an
hour and informed a mostly Republican crowd
that they could “rest assured” she would not
back any changes with filibuster rules,
reiterating a stance she took several days
before during a Senate speech."
"The Arizona Democratic
Party's executive committee
formally censured Sen.
Kyrsten Sinema on Saturday
morning as a result of her
inaction on changing the
filibuster rules to pass
voting rights reform.
"...on the matter of the
filibuster and the urgency
to protect voting rights, we
have been crystal clear. In
the choice between an
archaic legislative norm and
protecting Arizonans’ right
to vote, we choose the
latter, and we always will,"
Chairwoman Raquel Teran said
in a statement.
"While we take no pleasure
in this announcement, the
ADP Executive Board has
decided to formally censure
Senator Sinema as a result
of her failure to do
whatever it takes to ensure
the health of our
democracy.”
"Newly released 2021
financial disclosures show
something that, really, we
should have expected:
Centrist Democrat Kyrsten
Sinema is raking in cash
from Republican donors,
including at least one who’s
also been propping up fellow
obstructionist Sen. Joe
Manchin.
According to new FEC
filings, Sinema brought in
$1.6 million in Q4, only
$33,983 of which was
unitemized, which designates
donations of less than $200
(i.e., ones from ordinary
people). Shane Goldmacher of
The New York Times pointed
out on Twitter that a lot of
this big-money donor action
comes from some familiar
names: Harlan Crow, a
massive GOP donor the Texas
Tribune called “one of the
biggest whales in the
country”; Ken Langone,
another massive GOP donor
who felt “betrayed” by Trump
and switched to Biden;
Nelson Peltz, the
aforementioned Manchin
confidante; and Miguel B.
“Mike” Fernandez, a Florida
health care billionaire who
threw his fortune behind
Hillary in 2016 after Jeb
Bush fizzled out.
Goldmacher noted that Sinema
actually had to refund
Crow’s money because he
tried to give her too much
of it.
Sinema drew money from
additional Republican
megadonors like financier
George Roberts, groups like
the American Petroleum
Institute, and companies
like Fox News, whose
political action committee,
Fox Corp. PAC, gave her
$5,000. Manchin has also
received money from Fox
Corp. PAC. . ."
"Betsy DeVos spent four years
in the Trump administration attacking LGBTQ rights.
Now the company that made her rich is donating to
out Sen. Kyrsten Sinema so she'll oppose labor
reform."
"They've been derided as
spruced up pyramid schemes: Companies that
incentivize their own customers to become
salespeople for products. Now, these so-called
multilevel marketing businesses are flexing their
political muscle. And they're turning to one
lawmaker "
"A graduate student in social
work started a petition and asks, 'How can we learn
about advocacy from a politician who is continually
silent on issues impacting local Arizona
communities?"
"Long before she gave a
thumbs-down to a $15 minimum wage, kowtowed to Big
Pharma, and blocked progressives’ efforts to
dismantle the filibuster, US senator Kyrsten Sinema,
nominal Democrat and onetime Green Party activist,
attempted to scuttle the recall of State Senate
president
Russell Pearce, author of Arizona’s
infamous anti-immigrant legislation, Senate Bill
1070, which effectively empowered local cops to stop
brown people on “reasonable suspicion” and inquire
into their immigration status."
According to Sylvia González
Andersh, Sinema’s strategy of avoiding tough
questions extends to her own advisers. Andersh, an
Air Force veteran who served on the senator’s
veterans advisory council, had grown disillusioned
with Sinema’s obstructionism around the Democrats’
legislative agenda. Last week, Andersh and four
other veterans on the council resigned in protest
with a letter calling Sinema “one of the principal
obstacles to progress” and accusing her of using
them as “window dressing.”
"Congratulations are
apparently in order to Sen. Kyrsten Sinema for
her
role in killing a wildly popular plan to have
Medicare negotiate lower prices on prescription
drugs."
"Sinema balked at Biden's
proposed $3.5 trillion price tag and is reportedly
dead set against Democrats' proposals to partly roll
back the Trump administration's tax cuts for
corporations and the wealthy and to allow Medicare
to negotiate prescription drug costs. It's a
remarkable reversal for a former Green Party
activist who campaigned for the Senate in 2018 on
lowering drug costs and has repeatedly called for
the wealthy to "pay their fair share" throughout her
career. Sinema has criticized Democratic leaders for
making "conflicting promises" on Biden's big
legislative package, but Arizona progressives who
are now pushing a potential primary challenge in
2024 say she's the one who broke her campaign
promises."
"As Democrats' sweeping Build
Back Better package hangs in the balance largely due
to a pair of corporate-backed members working to
water down their own party's budget reconciliation
bill, two dozen Arizona groups joined with Public
Citizen on Wednesday to pressure their
obstructionist U.S. senator to support keeping
various improvements to Medicare in the package."
"Opposition from Sen. Kyrsten
Sinema of Arizona to lifting tax rates on
individuals and large businesses is derailing
Democrats' plans to roll back President
Donald
Trump's tax law, setting off a last-ditch effort to
seek alternatives that can lock in the centrist
Democrat's support."
"As congressional Democrats
frantically tried to reach agreement on passing
President Joe Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure
bill and $3.5 trillion social spending bill, Kyrsten
Sinema (D-Ariz.), one of the key moderates blocking
the Build Back Better Act, abruptly left Washington
DC for Arizona on Friday. Her spokesperson said she
had a medical appointment for a foot injury, but it
turns out Sinema will be attending a fundraising
“retreat” for her political action committee at a
high-end Phoenix resort and spa on Saturday. It’s
the second time in a week Sinema will have
fundraised with corporate interests who oppose
Biden’s spending bill."
"So, in Wednesday’s
installment of How Nothing Gets Done, the
starring role appears to be going to Senator
Kyrsten Sinema, International Pest of
Mystery. She seems to be enjoying her new
position as a pointless partisan roadblock
jamming up the agenda of a president. It
admittedly takes a lot of work, if not much
of a conscience. She met a few times with
the president on Tuesday and, at the end of
the day, she was still sabotaging the entire
agenda without giving the slightest
indication of why she’s doing it."
Sep. 29, 2021
PAID
FOR BY STONEWALL DEMOCRATS OF ARIZONA
• NOT AUTHORIZED BY ANY CANDIDATE OR CANDIDATE'S
COMMITTEE
