So now she runs third party handing the seat to a lunatic?
Can’t say what I want to happen to her.
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Setting up that 2024 Presidential run where she’ll win literally tens of votes (and rake in millions from super PACs)
ETA: “She did note, however, that she expects to keep her committee assignments”. Sounds like she’s caucusing with the Dems anyway. That or she’s even more delusional than I thought.
Would guess in practice this just makes anything partisan harder in the lame duck and makes judge confirmation modestly harder next session because Sinema more likely to push for judges that can get 60 votes or some other meow chow letting manchin retain more power.
Will be more problematic if manchin follows suit or teams up to require 60 votes for judges, but honestly outside of that since rs control the house anyways w/e
You guys are right though, Senate seat dead if she runs and certainly will get enough funding to be a viable spoiler.
I doubt she’ll push for the 60 vote threshold on judges given that she’s voted for 90+ of them so far in Biden’s term without it. I think she’s just massively high on her own supply and thinks there’s some “silent majority” out there that loves her. She correctly identified she can’t win a D primary against Biden but I bet she thinks she can win the whole thing as an independent picking off all the disaffected Rs and Ds. That or she just thinks it’s gonna be easier to grift tens of millions in PAC donations from all those private equity guys she preserved massive tax breaks for running as an independent.
I get some (partial) credit here:
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I guess the only good news is that she waited until after the run-off. Doing it earlier (in theory) could have animated more Repub turnout.
She would not have done it if Walker had won.
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My guess would be she sees this as a power grab opportunity. Probably think ghat by going I it will make her vote less certain or some such.
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We should have voted harder.
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She just likes attention.
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I don’t doubt this is true, but approximately 100% of politicians love the public attention. The diligent True Believer types that want to wield the power of government for the collective good are mostly back room policy wonks we’ve never heard of unless you happen to work in a highly regulated area where you get the pleasure of working directly with technocrats.
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yeah but most of them aren’t willing to completely debase themselves to get it. I’m like way more into politics than probably 99.99% of the population and there’s still a bunch of senators I can’t even name, much less representatives. Those guys could absolutely be getting their names in the news, it’s just a matter of how far they’re willing to go to do it and most of them are not willing to cross the event horizon
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It’s a defensive play against a primary challenger in 2024.
If it’s Gallego (D) vs Sinema (I) vs Masters (R), who wins? I don’t think I’m going to like the answer to that question.
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I read a theory that she likely made the move to protect her seat. If the Dems run someone in Arizona while she runs as an Independent, Republicans win. This move could keep the Dems from effectively primarying her.
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Considering how deeply in the Senate minority the Ds will be after 24 I think it’s fine to sacrifice the seat for 6 years to get rid of her. I still think she’s running for president though and then moving to full time grifting after she loses.
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My first thought is that Sinema running for president as an independent also a less than ideal outcome, particularly in a Biden v Trump matchup, unless you think that having someone besides Biden in the race would get more never Trump GOP to not vote for Trump
It would certainly be good news… for John McCain!
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*Kari Lake
“is joe biden going to be able to get his nominees, including potential supreme court justice(s) confirmed?”
“that’s a very DC thing to worry about JACOB”
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