The Daily Agenda: She will, won't she?

She's running -- marathons ... He's courting independents ... And Twitter polls aren't always bad.

One clear sign that U.S. Sen Kyrsten Sinema is likely going to run to keep her seat: She’s actually talking to the media.

In two top-tier national publications over the past few days, Sinema perfected her schtick, casting herself as a practical person who’s moved away from partisan politics in order to get things done, though which things, exactly, isn’t always clear.

The New York Times Magazine’s Robert Draper followed Sinema for two months, attending her recent photo op at the border where, we previously noted, Sinema donned some campaign cowboy attire. The Atlantic’s McKay Coppins, for his part, tried to understand who exactly the senior Arizona senator is and how she fits into today’s political landscape.

By now, these kinds of Sinema profiles sound largely the same: She came from humble means, was a Green Party activist, acquired a stack of degrees, became a perpetual headache for Democrats. She spends her time on marathons and making legislative overtures to people from different political backgrounds. She can’t be defined but hates when other people try to define her. She now abhors the activism that started her political career and that targets her now.

“You can make a poster and stand out on the street, but at the end of the day all you have is a sunburn,” she told Coppins. “You didn’t move the needle. You didn’t make a difference … I set about real quick saying, ‘This doesn’t work.’”

Prognosticators and voters alike are trying to square Sinema with Arizona’s political moment — a new swing state where one-third of voters aren’t affiliated with a political party. If there’s anywhere a fresh independent could make a successful run, wouldn’t it be a place like this? 

But Sinema still isn’t making a run official. She’d face Democratic U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego, Republican Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb and probably at least a few others if she steps in for real. She’d be the clear target, despite lacking the infrastructure of a political party and facing higher barriers to get on the ballot.

In the 2024 Senate map, the “where goes Sinema” question remains one of the biggest outstanding quandaries. Arizona’s seat will likely decide the fate of the upper chamber. Sinema could end up splitting Democratic votes, throwing the race to a Republican. 

For their parts, Draper and Coppins came to different conclusions. 

Draper thinks Sinema wouldn’t show up at the border in a “black Western shirt with a white yoke and black jeans with matching spectacles and cowboy boots” alongside four Republicans unless she was telegraphing a run. Sinema wouldn’t tell him whether she’s running or when she’d decide, saying that would happen “when I’m ready.”

Coppins, though, concludes that she “talks like someone who’s not planning on” seeking reelection. 

“I’m not only a senator,” she told him. “I’m also lots of other things.”

We tend to agree that wearing cowboy garb really just tells one story. It’s a time-honored tradition in Arizona to dress up for the border visit, one that we frequently poke fun at. She’s running, or she wouldn’t be showing up in that outfit. She’s running, or she wouldn’t bother with these high-profile media interviews, especially since she doesn’t like the media. She’s running, or she wouldn’t be retelling her biography and trying to cast it for the perfect political moment. 

No matter what she decides, Sinema’s mark will stay on the Senate race. With her out of it, the open seat would still be one of the most closely watched races in the country. But if she’s in, it’s far more interesting. 

So many independents, so little time: President Joe Biden will also need to woo independents if he’s going to win Arizona again, the New York Times writes, based on a bunch of interviews with Arizona independents. And Politico notes that Hispanic voters have soured on the president, which won’t help his chances of carrying states like Arizona.

Whiskey’s for drinking…: Arizona’s groundwater fights are about to get a lot nastier as AG Kris Mayes prepares to “escalate the war against rural water depletion,” Joanna Allhands warns in the Republic opinion pages. Mayes signaled in a recent communique to the Arizona Department of Water Management that she wants to “put sustained pressure on the department, one of a few she does not legally represent, to interpret state water law more aggressively,” Allhands writes.  Meanwhile, officials are attempting to flush more water through Lake Powell and Glen Canyon Dam in an attempt to break up the blobs of sediment heading toward the dam that could really mess it up, KUNC reports. They’re able to release extra water because of the high snowmelt in the Rocky Mountains this spring.

The duality is blinding: There are two economic reports on the impact of Tempe’s proposed entertainment district and Coyotes arena — one saying it’s good and the other saying it’s bad — and the Republic’s Sam Kmack breaks down the lies, damn lies and statistics behind them. Also, the whole thing would be built on a landfill, but probably not a “toxic” one as the Coyotes claim, Kmack reports separately. 

Revised zoning: The City of Phoenix says it “cannot possibly guarantee” it will be able to clean up “The Zone” homeless encampment in downtown Phoenix by May 10, as ordered by a judge. 12News’ Brahm Resnik reports that the city is asking the judge to lift the order implementing the deadline, saying they’re starting to clean up the area, but it’ll take time. And the Republic’s editorial board announced it’s starting a series exploring solutions to homelessness.   

"Right now, if everyone down there said, 'I'm ready to go to an indoor place,' we absolutely do not have capacity for that," Rachel Milne, director of Phoenix's Office of Homeless Solutions, told 12News.

Just trust him: After the Washington Post dropped the detail that Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone investigated the claims that elected officials are taking bribes from the Sinaloa Cartel, the Republic’s Ray Stern notes Penzone did so “quietly” so as not to get used as “a political pawn” by conspiracy theorists. Still, he’s refusing to turn over public records about his brief “inquiry,” which didn’t produce any evidence of wrongdoing.

Just trust us: Your subscription dollars are going to good use supporting local journalism, the Arizona Agenda pledged to its readers Tuesday. The online news organization said there is no truth to the rumors that the staff is spending all their money at the local wine shop.

Lost in the mail: Civil rights groups attempted to stop a rule change that will allow more extremists groups like “constitutional sheriffs” to get government funding to train police instead of AZPOST, the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting reports. The Arizona Governor’s Regulatory Review Council (under former Gov. Doug Ducey) approved the continuing education training rule change, and Gov. Katie Hobbs didn’t respond to civil rights groups’ concerns until after the rule took effect last month. 

Maps are cool: A University of Arizona professor is attempting to map the city’s racist convenants — rules for developments that spell out which races of people can live there — after discovering his own home has a covenant that would bar his Black husband from living there, Arizona Public Media’s Paola Rodriguez reports. And the Electronic Frontiers Foundation is mapping all the virtual surveillance towers along the U.S-Mexico border. Former Tucson reporter Dave Maass¹ is leading the project. 

From longshot to nonshot: Tucson independent mayoral candidate Zach Yentzer got bounced from the ballot after a fellow independent challenged his nominating petitions, Becky Pallack reports in the Arizona Luminaria. Yentzer was viewed as having the best longshot chance of the four (now three) longshot candidates challenging Tucson Mayor Regina Romero. 

We love a ballot mystery: A Clifton man who discovered that a ballot had been cast in his name at his old address in California has been seeking answers for two years to no avail, Green Valley News’ Dan Shearer reports. Officials in California have told him they can’t comment because of an ongoing investigation, though he’s not even sure there is an investigation into the matter. 

After the press caravan to the hearing?: Every legitimate reporter in Arizona should start knocking on Republican Sen. Wendy Rogers’ doors in a show of solidarity with Capitol Times reporter Camryn Sanchez, who was slapped with a restraining order for investigating the politicians’ whereabouts, Elvia Díaz, the head of the Republic’s editorial board, told KJZZ’s “The Show.” Diaz said Rogers is attempting to scare the press corps into not covering her. 

“I believe it’s a coordinated effort from the fringe conservative movement to stifle reporters and free speech to the point that people are going to be afraid to do their jobs. And that’s what happens in dictatorships.”

Heads will roll: University of Arizona President Robert Robbins announced the seemingly forced resignations of the schools provost and police chief in the wake of the university’s own report detailing a long list of failings leading up to the murder of professor Thomas Meixner last October. The UA Faculty Senate recently gave them both, along with Robbins, a vote of “no confidence,” the Daily Star’s Kathryn Palmer writes. And Noam Chomsky, the leftist academic and sometimes UA professor, was among the many influential people who met with international sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, according to Epstein’s calendar, which the Wall Street Journal obtained. Chomsky didn’t want to talk about it when the paper called him. 

“First response is that it is none of your business. Or anyone’s. Second is that I knew him and we met occasionally,” Chomsky told the paper.

Republicans are threatening to file an ethics complaint against Democratic Rep. Stephanie Stahl Hamilton for hiding their Bibles for what she called some lighthearted commentary on the separation of church and state.

Never to be outclassed, Republican Rep. Justin Heap noted that the whole place is stuffed with Native American prayer rugs and other religious items and put up a Twitter poll asking whether he should hide them.

But the shocking part of this is his Twitter followers voted to tell the lawmaker to leave the items alone.

1. The San Diego City Council once authored a truly awesome proclamation that declared  Feb 13, 2013 “Dave Maass Day.” The proclamation read, in part, “WHEREAS…Dave Maass has been mildly annoying San Diego's politicos for the past three years…and WHEREAS Dave is personally responsible for no less than three staffers in the City Clerk's officer hired to handle his endless Public Records Act Requests."