I've had a lot of feedback-- most of it great-- after Michelangelo Signorile's post last week in HuffPo about how propounding disappointing LGBT freshmen Kyrsten Sinema (New Dem-AZ) and Sean Patrick Maloney (New Dem-NY) have been. I've been blogging about these two clowns here at DWT all year. No one in New York seems to have noticed that Maloney has the single worst (i.e., most Republican) voting record of any Democratic freshman. But Sinema's constituents are far more alert and are making life very difficult for her inner transition from a self-proclaimed progressive to a deceitful conservative. Carl is a Massachusetts transplant, but he's been living in Arizona for 18 years and he explains Sinema's political perfidy as typical triangulation. And he lumps her in with fellow New Dem, Ron Barber, who has an even worse voting record.
In the last week or so, during the federal government shutdown crisis manufactured the Republicans in the US House of Representatives, we've seen a couple of the Democratic members of AZ's Congressional delegation go down this path in the most brazen way possible.Reps. Kyrsten Sinema (D-CD9) and Ron Barber (D-CD2) have tried to look "reasonable" by siding with the tea party types in Congress by voting to weaken the Affordable Care Act. They have also supported a number of bills that are intended to cloak the Rs in an aura of "puppy dogs and fluffy white clouds" (funding PR-friendly agencies and operations like cancer research, etc.).I'm not psychic, and I'm not exactly the first person they call for advice (shocking, I know), so I can't speak from direct knowledge. However, most informed speculation on the subject is that Barber and Sinema have been voting the way that they have been in a move to gain Republican votes in their competitive districts.By doing so, they've aligned themselves with, and given political cover to, the people who have crippled the government because they object to the idea that Americans now have access to affordable health insurance coverage. People who, during the shutdown, have:• Said that shutting down government and putting hundreds of thousands of workers out of work was their idea of "fun" (AZ's own David Schweikert)• Berated an unpaid park ranger at a WWII memorial in DC for shutting down access to the memorial, one of the many closed by the federal government shutdown created by Republicans (TX's Randy Neugebauer)•Stated that they still deserve their paychecks because, unlike furloughed workers, they are still on the job.…It is a game plan that isn't likely to gain them the Republican votes that they covet-- it's been said before that people who lean Republican will vote for the "real" thing when presented with a choice between a real Republican candidate and a Republican-lite one.And the plan probably won't directly cost them Democratic votes because while many D voters may decide that Sinema and Barber aren't "good" candidates, they are the "less bad" option on the ballot.Where it will hurt them is in the enthusiasm department. Candidates, especially those in competitive districts and races, need the support of believers who are willing to walk precincts and make calls for their candidate in exchange for, at most, a pat on the back and some snacks.The ranks of their true believers are being thinned by this mess....I don't know Congressman Barber, having never met him, but I did meet Congresswoman Sinema while she was a member of the Arizona legislature. In addition, I live in CD9 and met her again during the 2012 campaign.She is smart, hard-working, accomplished, and ambitious.Generally speaking, each of those qualities, even "ambitious", is a good thing in electeds, especially young ones.However, "ambitious" can also be a problem for young electeds if rather than ruling their ambitions, their ambitions rule them.The jury is still out on Sinema in this regard, but there are growing indications that her ambitiousness is compromising her political judgement. With the debt ceiling fight coming up and quickly, more insight into Sinema (and Barber, as well), will soon be available.
Former Democratic House candidate, Bob Lord was a Sinema supporter. It doesn't sound like he is any longer. "This is what happens," he writes, "when your efforts to appear 'centrist' are over the top. He then quotes Steve Muratore at Arizona Eagletarian:
A government shutdown is an abandonment of Congress' basic duty, and that’s shameful. Arizonans are angry and I don't blame them. I am angry. Time has run out and both parties are responsible. Every single effort by the House and Senate must be a step towards finding common sense and middle ground.Both parties? Really? If both parties are responsible in this instance, is it even possible for one party to behave so extremely and unreasonably that it alone is at fault?If the House Republicans sought to repeal Social Security, would the Senate be duty bound to take steps towards "finding common sense and middle ground"?Here's the glaring logical flaw in Kyrsten's statement: You don't "find common sense." Your position either is based on common sense, or it is not. If both parties' positions are based on common sense, there is a middle ground that also is based on common sense.In order to "find middle ground" the beginning positions of both sides have to be based on common sense. Otherwise, there is no basis for "finding middle ground." How can one party that is grounded with common sense find middle ground with a party lacking commons sense? Quite simply, the position of the House Republicans is lacking in common sense. If you pretend it does not, you've just validated the tactic of threatening to shut down the government unless the other side caves in to your demands.Here's the test you can run to see if a party's negotiating position is based on common sense: Would the party still take that position if the concessions it is seeking were made without condition? If the answer is no, common sense is lacking. In this case, if the Senate gave in to all the House Republicans' demands, the House Republicans would not be opposing the Continuing Resolution. So, it makes no sense that they are opposing it now.Here's another way to look at it: The clean continuing resolution represents the common ground. Neither side is in favor of shutting down the government. So, the Democrats already occupy what should be the common ground.Bottom line: When your efforts to be a "centrist" are over the top, there's a good chance you'll engage in crazy talk.
And while Sinema's strategy of me-too conservatism is what she plans to run for reelection on, voters in far more right-wing areas than AZ-09, have already started voting against Republicans who back the Tea Party insanity. There was excellent news out of North Carolina today, where the far right of the GOP was dealt a stunning blow across the snout by angry voters.
• The Republican majority on the Wake County school board is no more, pending only the result of a likely runoff election in District 3. But Board Chair Ron Margiotta, the Republican leader, was ousted by challenger Susan Evans, a registered Democrat, in District 8 (Southwest Wake), which is generally viewed as THE most Republican of the nine school board districts. Evans won by a solid 52-48 percent margin in what can only be viewed as a stunning repudiation of Margiotta's and the Republican school board's extremism.• Democratic candidates won or led by wide margins in the other four school board district races. Keith Sutton buried Republican Venita Peyton in District 4 (Southeast Raleigh). Jim Martin was an easy winner over Republican Cynthia Matson in District 5 (West Raleigh and Southwest Wake). Ditto Christine Kushner over Republican Donna Williams and two other candidates in District 6 (Central Raleigh).• In District 3, incumbent Kevin Hill, a former school principal and a registered Democrat, led Republican activist Heather Losurdo by about 10 percent, but with two other candidates in the race, Hill apparently fell about 40 votes shy of an outright majority. Losurdo reportedly plans to call for a runoff in November.In the school board races overall, turnout was about 21 percent of registered voters, which doesn't sound like a lot but is twice the turnout of the 2009 elections, in which the Republicans seized their 5-4 board majority.In '09, Republican candidates won all four seats on the ballot, with John Tedesco winning his District 2 (Southeast Wake) seat in a runoff. Tedesco, Chris Malone, Debra Goldman and Deborah Prickett remain on the board for two more years, but without Margiotta, first elected to the District 8 board seat in 2003, they'll find themselves in a 5-4 minority unless Losurdo somehow is able to unseat Hill in a runoff.Given Losurdo's nosedive late in the campaign when voters learned more about her, Hill seems in a commanding position going into a runoff. A Public Policy Polling survey of District 3 voters a week ago gave Hill a 16-point edge over Losurdo in a head-to-head contest.Similarly, in the Raleigh city elections the Republicans lost across the board to Democrats and progressive-minded independents.The latter term describes City Councilor Nancy McFarlane, who won the mayor's race by trouncing Republicans Billie Redmond and Dr. Randall Williams. McFarlane won 61 percent of the vote in the three-way contest.In the at-large City Council race, Democratic incumbents held their seats against a lone Republican challenger. Mary-Ann Baldwin and Russ Stephenson were re-elected with twice as many votes as Republican Paul Fitts.…For a Republican Party bent on holding its school board majority and taking the Raleigh mayor's post after 10 years of Democrat Charles Meeker in charge, Tuesday's results were nothing short of a colossal collapse. Democratic voters, who were asleep at the switch two years ago when the GOP won the school board elections, rose up in big numbers this time to push them out.After the GOP wins in Wake County in '09 and statewide in North Carolina (and nationally) in '10, do the '11 results in North Carolina's Capital City and County mark the beginning of a Democratic resurgence?Downtown in Raleigh tonight, it was hard to find anyone who didn't think the answer to that question is yes.
NOTEThe North Carolina elections weren't today. They were a couple years ago. Sorry for the frothy excitement. I misread the dates.