Opinion: Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is inching closer to running for reelection. It’s easy to see why.
By Laurie Roberts || The Arizona Republic
Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb on Tuesday became the first Republican candidate to jump into the race for U.S. Senate.
If you’re Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, you’re … thrilled.
“Popping the champagne corks, baby,” Chuck Coughlin, a longtime Republican political consultant, told me. “That’s exactly what she needs.”
Four months after being chased out of the Democratic Party, Sinema appears to be inching ever closer to making a run for reelection.
That which seemed impossible in December, now seems almost inevitable.
Sinema has all but announced another run
The Wall Street Journal on Friday reported that she had a staff retreat last week to lay out a timeline for a potential run as an independent.
Meanwhile, she was the keynote speaker on Thursday at the spring gathering of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry, wherein she laid down what would be the centerpiece of her campaign.
“Everyone knows I’ve always been a pain in the ass to both parties, right? Nothing about that has changed,” she told the chamber crowd. “I’ve always been an independent voice for Arizona.”
That sounds like a winning message for a lot of fed-up voters in search of an alternative to the angry politics of the far right and the far left.
Progressive Gallego could be a tough sell
Already, she’s drawn Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego on the left. He’s the pride of the progressives, the likely Democratic nominee.
But there’s a reason why Sinema and Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly ran to the center during their respective Senate campaigns.
Contrary to how it may look, Arizona isn’t really a blue state.
