The Green Valley News and Sahuarita Sun tore into Kyrsten Sinema in an editorial this weekend, calling her out for taking a sham tour across southern Arizona and going to extreme lengths to avoid questions from the public and the press. According to the paper, Sinema “snuck in” and “snuck out” while refusing interviews and even turned away a reporter who showed up to cover her events.
Sinema’s evasiveness shows just how far she’s willing to go in order to dip, dodge, duck and dive from Arizonans — just like when she dipped out of a hearing on border security in Phoenix less than 30 minutes after it began, refused to answer basic questions on her position on the Iran nuclear deal, and declined to answer questions in Phoenix earlier last week.
However, knowing Sinema’s past as an avowed “Prada socialist” and her failure to pass even a single bill with her name on it, I guess it’s easy to see why she’d be running for cover. Take a look…
FROM THE EDITOR—Campaign 101: How not to do it
Green Valley News/Sahuarita Sun
June 3, 2018
https://www.gvnews.com/opinion/from-the-editor-campaign-how-not-to-do-it/article_f144bf4c-669f-11e8-9225-0f583d1e2710.html
…
I received a call from a campaign aide last week who said Sinema would be in Green Valley and would like to come by the paper. No problem, I said.
Then she told me I’d have all of 15 minutes with her.
Not enough, I said. I need at least a half hour. I explained that we don’t endorse, but if candidates care enough to come through our community, we’ll meet with them and write a column about where they stand on the issues, particularly those specific to us.
She listened politely, then said that Rep. Sinema had official congressional duties mixed with campaign work and was really, really busy.
I’m sure she is, I said. But I still need 30 minutes.
…
During both phone calls I asked what Sinema would be doing in Green Valley. She avoided the question the first time. Then I pressed. And pressed again. She seemed evasive and uncomfortable, so I took a wild guess: Private meeting with donors?
She neither confirmed nor denied. It’s not surprising. Money-grubbing is a necessary evil in politics.
But Sinema sidestepped real people (our papers speak to tens of thousands of them every week) for a shot at high-dollar donors tossing softball questions and cash her way.
Then it got worse. In an email blast Saturday morning, she made that closed-door appearance sound like a “come one, come all” campaign rally. The blast gushed over Sinema’s sweep through Southern Arizona, and included Green Valley on the list of places visited.
So I called her aide Saturday morning and asked, once again, where she was when she visited Green Valley.
It was a private event, and well-attended, I was told.
Who decided the guest list? Who hosted it?
Well, the aide didn’t have the details on that.
Counting a private event as part of a Southern Arizona sweep is disingenuous. Sinema snuck into Green Valley, then she snuck out. Probably richer for it. She didn’t really want to talk to you.
But we weren’t alone when it came to snubs.
Sinema was in Sierra Vista on Thursday speaking at a public library, but a reporter was turned away at the door.
How come, I asked her aide. And was it Sinema who asked that reporters be barred? Who reserved the room? Who was invited? How was it publicized? What type of people attended?
The aide said she’d get back to me in an hour. I’m still waiting. (Note to campaign staff: That’s called a lie.)
The aide noted that Sinema spoke to a reporter with our sister paper in Sierra Vista. The resulting story was about an inch deep — not the reporter’s fault. According to the aide, the reporter was given “10 or 15 minutes” with the congresswoman.
All they really had to do was let the reporter into the library.
…poor decisions have told us a lot about Marquez-Peterson and Sinema in the past week. Here’s the message: The money is more important than the people.
The silver lining is that it’s quite possible we learned more about them from their actions than we would have from any debate question.