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Celerity

(43,779 posts) Mon Jul 31, 2023, 12:06 PM Jul 2023

Dems Have an Arizona Strategy: Don't Piss Off Kyrsten Sinema

Democratic leaders are hoping that they can keep Sinema largely on their side as long as they don’t come out in favor of Democratic Senate candidate Ruben Gallego.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/dems-have-an-arizona-strategy-dont-piss-off-kyrsten-sinema

https://archive.li/yGUp3

For months, eager Democratic donors have pressed the chair of the party’s Senate campaign arm, Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), about the biggest question mark on the 2024 election map. Asked about the party’s stance on Arizona—where a Democratic candidate is challenging independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema—Peters has consistently given the same answer, according to a donor who has seen him speak at several fundraisers. The party, Peters has said, is currently neutral in the race. Other private signals from the party have confirmed that posture. A recent email to donors from Senate Majority PAC, the outside group aligned with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), made clear their ultimate goal is not necessarily to elect the Democratic nominee in Arizona.

“Despite the current uncertainty, our primary goal still is ensuring a Republican does not win,” reads the email, a copy of which was obtained by The Daily Beast. According to several sources, the party’s donor class is responding accordingly, either limiting their involvement in the race or staying out of it entirely until Sinema announces whether she will seek a second term in 2024. With Rep. Ruben Gallego (D) locking up support among Arizona Democrats and briskly fundraising as the presumptive party nominee, some Democrats see no point to getting on Sinema’s bad side while she remains a key vote in the Senate.

The unsettled GOP side of the Arizona race is not adding to any sense of urgency. Kari Lake, the polarizing MAGA star and failed 2022 governor candidate, is likely to run for the seat, and would immediately become the primary favorite over Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb, the only declared Republican candidate so far. But Lake is clearly in no rush to announce her decision, and as long as the presumptive GOP frontrunner is on the sidelines, Democratic leaders seem content to let Sinema’s decision run its course. Increasingly, however, some donors and Arizona Democrats are growing impatient with the wait-and-see strategy from Washington.

There is concern that if Sinema does run, Democrats will have missed a window to begin organizing and defining the media narrative against her. There’s also concern that if she sits out, Democrats will have missed a moment to make early investments in the key battleground state. “Democrats are playing a really dangerous game with sitting back and not engaging voters earlier,” said Luis Avila, a longtime progressive operative in Arizona who advises the Replace Sinema PAC, an outside effort that has been actively organizing to defeat Sinema since 2021. “This kind of fear that Democrats have of pissing Sinema off, it’s making it harder for us to actually talk to voters in general,” Avila continued. “They want to know where we stand on Sinema… what Democrats are doing is making it harder for us to make the case for them.”

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