Friday, September 28, 2018

Arizona May End up With a Former Communist as Senator

Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) is running for the U.S. Senate in Arizona — a state that hasn’t sent a Democrat to the Senate since 1988. Elected in 2012 and the first open bisexual in Congress, she is running as a moderate. But she’s not one. Let’s look at her record.
Back in 2002 and 2003, Sinema signed her name to a “May Day and Cinco de Mayo greetings” ad in a Communist Party newspaper. Several other communists signed it with her. She switched to the Green Party next. She became the party’s spokesperson. When she registered as a Democrat, those in the party called her “too extreme” and “radical.”
She became a state legislator in 2005. Around 2008, she was awarded the Vladimir I. Lenin award by the Arizona Federation of Taxpayers for being the furthest left member of the Arizona State Legislature.

A Felony to Report Illegal Immigrants

In 2006 and again in 2007, she sponsored a bill that would make an average Arizona citizen a felon if they were to report an illegal immigrant. She helped found the Arizona State House Progressive Caucus in 2008. In 2010, she served on the Board of Directors for the Progressive States Network. It is funded by George Soros‘ Open Society Institute.
Sinema participated in and organized protest rallies against the military, against enforcing immigration laws and against Israel.
Sinema participated in and organized protest rallies against the military, against enforcing immigration laws and against Israel. In 2003, she led a far-left activist group that passed out flyers portraying American soldiers as skeletons committing “U.S. terror.” Another flyer referred to President George W. Bush as a “fascist” and “imperialist” and claimed the U.S. government was the enemy.
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Also in 2003, she wrote about “singing and spiraling” in a pagan circle at a protest. She defended Black Bloc, and said the police were the aggressors. In the early 2000s she organized for the Arizona Alliance for Peace and Justice (AAPJ), a group whose members have denounced Israel’s “disproportionate” use of “violence and oppression.”
Kyrsten-Sinema-in-Pink-Tutu-at-Anti-War-ProtestThree times she supported legislation to create a federal “Department of Peace and Nonviolence.” She advocated for shutting down Arizona’s military bases — until she started running for Senate. She voted against a bill that would penalize sanctuary states and localities.

Despises Women Who Stay at Home

Sinema despises women who stay at home. During a 2006 interview with a nightlife magazine, she said, “These women who act like staying at home, leeching off their husbands or boyfriends, and just cashing the checks is some sort of feminism because they’re choosing to live that life. … That’s b*******.”
Sinema was caught lying about being homeless as a child growing up. She told The New Y0rk Times “she spent three years as a child living in a former gas station without running water or electricity.” However, her parents were actually paying electricity, gas and phone bills at the time.
Sinema has a lifetime score of only 13 out of 100 from the American Conservative Union.
She has a lifetime score of only 13 out of 100 from the American Conservative Union. Her claims of moving to the center in recent years aren’t true. Her rating from the ACU has actually gone down in the past couple of years. In 2016 it was eight and in 2017 it was four. Planned Parenthood gives her a lifetime rating of 100. They awarded her their Legislative CHOICE Award. The Sierra Club designated her Most Valuable Player.
She helped Obama craft Obamacare. In January 2017, she voted against a bill to repeal Obamacare. She supports background checks on private parties selling guns at gun shows. Sinema believes a license should be required to own a gun. She voted against a bill that would make concealed-carry firearm permits valid across state lines.

Kyrsten Sinema beforeA ‘Prada Socialist’

She describes herself as a “Prada socialist,” meaning she can be a socialist “and still have fabulous accessories.” In a fawning profile, Elle magazine calls her “the proud owner of more than 100 pairs of shoes.”
Sinema supports the Dream Act for illegal immigrants. She’s talking tough on border security now that she’s running for Senate in a red state. But just like the late John McCain, everyone knows it’s only for show. Once she gets into office she’ll revert to her liberal positions.
Unfortunately, the Republican alternative is only slightly better. Martha McSally, whose GOP establishment supporters spent nearly $1 million to defeat her conservative opponent Kelli Ward in the primary, is a liberal Republican. She says the late John McCain was her mentor. The American Conservative Union gives her a lifetime rating of 71 while in the House, worse than McCain’s 80.
Republicans furious at the way her supporters treated Ward are threatening to stay at home on election day. Sinema is leading McSally by a few points in most recent polls. Sinema is charismatic, bright and a tireless worker. Unless voters know about her past record, they may not see her as much different than McSally.

Follow Rachel on Twitter at Rach_IC. Send tips to rachel.alexander@stream.org. Reprinted from The Stream

Monday, September 3, 2018

Will Ducey Appoint a Moderate or a Conservative to Replace McCain?

Arizona Governor Doug Ducey said he would name a Senate replacement for John McCain after McCain’s funeral proceedings. Insiders say it is likely to be McCain’s widow, Cindy McCain, 64. “If she gave him any indication she wants the seat, I think she gets it,” a source told The Guardian. She is less conservative than her husband. She was an outspoken supporter of the NOH8 campaign. That was a gay rights project opposed to California’s Proposition 8, a ballot measure banning same-sex marriage.
Interest in Meghan McCain has risen recently.
Cindy McCain is not the only McCain reportedly being looked at. The McCains’ daughter Meghan McCain, 33, may be a choice. She calls herself a Republican, however, she is quite liberal. She admits it on social issues. McCain supports gay rights and opposes abstinence-only education. She is worried about global warming. McCain says she is on the fence about the Occupy Wall Street movement. She supports government-funded embryonic stem cell research.
McCain voted for John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election. She once said on the Rachel Maddow Show, “I didn’t even take econ[omics] in college. I don’t completely understand it so I’d hate to make a comment one way or the other. That’s — truly of all the things — I keep reading and I just don’t understand it.” McCain praised Hillary Clinton for having “pushed through many doors and shattered many glass ceilings for women in politics.”
Interest in Meghan McCain has risen recently due to her defending the GOP against four other women on the TV show The View. Also, her well-publicized shots at Trump during her eulogy were a hit. She said,”The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again because America was always great,” to great applause.

Conservative Choices

Adam Brandon, president and CEO of FreedomWorks, penned an op-ed for the Washington Examiner advocating former Congressman Matt Salmon, 60, to replace McCain. Salmon has a lifetime rating of 95 from the American Conservative Union. This is far higher than McCain’s 80. The GOP base would be fine with him. He’s even done a pretty good job of not making enemies with the moderates.
The conservative base would love to see Governor Ducey appoint Kelli Ward.
The GOP base would also love to see Ducey appoint Kelli Ward, 49. She lost the GOP Senate primary election for former Arizona Senator Jeff Flake’s seat last week. Moderate Congresswoman Martha McSally won. She has a dismal lifetime score of 71 from the American Conservative Union. McSally received millions from the GOP establishment. One of the Super PACs supporting her ran an ad full of misstatements about Ward. Conservatives are bitter about moderates beating up on Ward; they believe appointing her to this seat would resolve the unfairness.
Another solid conservative name that has popped up is former Congressman John Shadegg, 68. He has an impressive lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union of 98. He gets along with both the GOP base and the moderates.

Questionable Picks

Former Senator Jon Kyl’s name is also being circulated. The 76-year-old has a lifetime rating of 96 from the American Conservative Union, but the GOP base dislikes him. They view him as part of the GOP establishment and a McCain crony. He angeredthem when he helped craft a compromise on immigration that they viewed as amnesty.
Ducey’s chief of staff, Kirk Adams, 45, a former state legislator, may be in the running. He has close ties to the wealthy Koch brothers. While his record in the state legislature was fairly conservative, he has riled the GOP base with some of his heavy-handedness as chief of staff.
A dark horse candidate is Eileen Klein, whom Ducey recently appointed as state treasurer. She previously served as chief of staff for Governor Jan Brewer. Barbara Barrett, 67, the first woman to run for governor in Arizona, is another dark horse candidate. She has never held public office. Businesswoman Karrin Taylor Robson’s name is also being thrown around.

Narrowing it Down

Ducey is likely to appoint someone who will run for office after the appointment ends. He is not likely to appoint a caretaker to merely serve out the term. It is doubtful that he will appoint a sitting member of Congress, because that would force an election to find a replacement.
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Ducey has to tread very carefully here. A large portion of the GOP base is upset with him for caving in on #RedForEd. He agreed to a 20 percent salary increase for teachers which has no guarantees it will be implemented. Although Ducey easily won reelection in the GOP gubernatorial primary election last week, appointing a moderate Republican will destroy his reputation as a conservative.
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