While Mr. Warner is right that Ms. Sinema has always been independent, her change of affiliation gives her some distance from her old party if she wants to get it noticed. Republicans and Democrats will be watching to see if that translates into a new approach. She has stated in interviews, an editorial and a video statement that she has no plans to operate any differently than she has thus far.
“I’m going to continue to do exactly what I’m doing which is stay focused on work and ignore all the noise,” he told CNN.
But Republicans will no doubt look to capitalize on his newfound status. For example, Senator Charles E. Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, took to Twitter to urge the new independent to insist that Senate committees be evenly divided instead of the one-seat advantage Democrats expect to have from January.
“Now Sen Sinema is independent and correctly states that people are tired of partisanship,” he said in a tweet. “One step he will take even if he won’t do Republican caucuses is to insist on equal counting of parties on committees like this convention. This would lead to more bipartisanship.
Such a move by Ms Sinema, suffice it to say, would be frowned upon by the Democrats.
Senator Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican and minority leader, highlighted his strong relationship with Ms. Sinema on Tuesday.
“She and I talk all the time,” he said. “She has a lot of friends on our side of the aisle, me including her, and I think she’s decided to be really independent and go her own way, and I wish her the best of luck.”
In her ad, Ms. Sinema sought to highlight her independent streak to downplay any criticism that she had played bait-and-switch with Arizona voters by running as a Democrat to drop the party label four years later, when it seemed that might not be doing well. a party primary.
