Will Kyrsten Sinema (D, AZ-09) bolt for the safety of AZ-07?

You know, when I heard a few days ago that beleaguered freshman Democrat Kyrsten Sinema was thinking from switching from her unpleasantly (to her) competitive AZ-09 seat to the much more suitable (for her) AZ-07 seat,  I was… skeptical.  Basically, the long-time Democratic incumbent in AZ-07 (Ed Pastor) is retiring after this term, and while I can understand Sinema’s presumed logic there (it’s a hardcore D+16 seat; whoever wins the Democratic primary there probably wins the election) the truth is that a lot of people in the Arizona Democratic party would rightly see the switch as a net loss.  This is a bad year for a Democrat to win an open R+1 seat, which is what the situation would be in AZ-09 if Sinema switches: if that happens, the Democrats go from having a tough fight that they might win to having a tough fight that they’d likely lose. I assumed, in other words, that basic tactical reality would inform the Congresswoman’s choices.

Maybe not.

Freshman Democratic Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema was huddling with her top campaign staff Saturday, apparently to decide whether she should ditch her current 9th District seat to run in the safer 7th Congressional District next door, according to a Sinema staff email [AZCentral reporter Brahm Resnik] obtained Saturday.

The email summoning top staffers to Phoenix on less than two days’ notice was sent Thursday evening by Sinema’s campaign manager. They were to discuss “the current situation and the options before Kyrsten.”

Well, I suppose that when you’re trying to get off of the sinking ship you shouldn’t be too concerned about whether you’re most deserving that seat on the lifeboat… no, wait, that’s wrong.  That’s animal thinking. Humans are supposed to think in terms of more than raw individual survival.

So I guess we’re going to see just how worried Kyrsten Sinema is.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: There are, by the way, far worse things in life than not spending twenty years in Congress.  I mention this largely because so many people in DC seem to think otherwise.

4 thoughts on “Will Kyrsten Sinema (D, AZ-09) bolt for the safety of AZ-07?”

  1. Eh, let her jump. The ads for her Dem primary rivals write themselves, as do the general election ads for her GOP challenger.
    .
    Mew

  2. AZ-7 is basically south-central Phoenix and majority Hispanic — Pastor was the only Hispanic of Arizona’s US Reps out of a Congressional delegation of nine. No way would AZ Hispanic Dems let white crust, Prada-wearing commie Sinema take that seat.

    (It would be another commie, of course, but Hispanic.)

      1. Heh, I’m accustomed to watching the GOP shoot itself in the foot (or 3 feet higher and center-line), so it’s always pleasant to watch the donks do it…especially when they’re using a full auto shotgun 😀

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