Numbers Keep Changing
Didn’t see this one coming…Arizona U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema—who was elected in 2018 as a Democrat—announced she had changed her voter registration to independent and would not be caucusing with Senate Democrats going forward.
You know that Sinema and West Virginia U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin have been the thorns in the sides of some Democrats, holding the line against some of the most egregious policy measures the progressives advocate. Shifting party registration is one thing…but declaring herself to be a caucus free agent, in effect, is quite interesting.
Something else that is interesting…there will be more Republicans than Democrats in the U.S. Senate in the next Congress…but Democrats will have majority control. That’s because there will be 49 card-carrying Republicans and only 48 registered Democrats. That leaves three independents…but Vermont’s Bernie Sanders and Maine’s Angus King caucus with the Democrats, which is what gives them the 50 seats that, along with a vice-president of their party, gives them the working majority.
Timing is everything on things like this, of course. Sinema did not make the move until after the Georgia runoff, which meant that the party could lose her and still have that majority. So while she’s getting a lot of heat from those on the left, one has to wonder if she would have taken the step if it meant control of the chamber would have flipped. Perhaps she’ll be less of an annoyance to the left as an independent, instead of a wandering Democrat.
Activists were already preparing a U.S. House member in Arizona to challenge Sinema in a primary in 2024…so this move either means she does not intend to seek re-election, or wants to test the waters to see if a truly independent voice can get enough votes from Republicans and Democrats in order to win.
Regardless, it changes the math in Congress yet again. You can bet she’ll get whatever she wants, like keeping her committee assignments, because Democrats don’t want her to move again, over to the Republican side, no matter how unlikely that may be. But depending on how the next six months go, it makes you wonder if she is the last to make some sort of shift.
