Kyrsten Sinema

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Kyrsten Sinema

Kyrsten Sinema is a far left, first term State Senator from Arizona. She previously served as the Assistant Leader to the Democratic Caucus in the House of Representatives and represented central Phoenix in the Arizona Legislature District 15. In her third term as a State Rep., she was the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee and the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee.^[1]

Background

Kyrsten Sinema is an Arizona native, born and raised in a border region. She graduated college with a bachelor’s degree in Social Work at the age of 18. While advocating for "marginalized and oppressed communities in the state", she earned her master’s degree in Social Work and later went on to graduate cum laude with her juris doctorate from Arizona State University. In addition, she was hired as an adjunct professor in the School of Social Work at ASU at the age of 26 to teach master’s level courses in fundraising and political and social policy. Kyrsten Sinema was elected to the House of Representatives in 2004, after nearly a decade of professional practice as a social worker and social justice advocate.^[2]

Education

Kyrsten Sinema holds both a law degree and a Master’s degree in Social Work from Arizona State University, and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in the School of Justice and Social Inquiry at ASU. She is an adjunct professor in the School of Social Work at ASU and practices law when not in session.^[3]

Service

Sinema serves on numerous community and national boards, including as Board President of Community Outreach and Advocacy for Refugees, the YWCA of Maricopa County, the Center for Progressive Leadership, and the Young Elected Officials’ Network. She is the recipient of awards for her political leadership, including the NAACP Civil Rights Award, AZ Hispanic Community Forum Friend of the Year, Planned Parenthood Legislative CHOICE Award, Sierra Club’s Most Valuable Player, and the AZ Public Health Association Legislator of the Year.^[4]

In 2010 Kyrsten Sinema was serving her second term in the House, teaching at Arizona State University, practicing criminal defense law, consulting with states on LGBTQ legislation and initiatives. She also serves on a number of national and local boards, including as a board member of the Progressive Democrats of America (as the only state legislator on the board), a member of the Steering Committee of HRC Arizona, as Board President of Community Outreach and Advocacy for Refugees, board member of the Arizona Death Penalty Forum, board member of Girls for a Change, and others.^[5]

Communist Party USA connection

zoomed in selection of Communist Party USA paper People's Weekly World May 4, 2002 May Day and Cinco de Mayo greetings (click here for the full page)

Kyrsten Sinema was a signatory to an advertisement "May Day and Cinco de Mayo greetings" placed in the Communist Party USA paper People's Weekly World May 4, 2002. Such ads were traditionally placed in the Communist Party paper every May Day, sponsored by local party clubs, members or supporters.

Arizona's progressive community extends May Day and Cinco de Mayo greetings to all our friends across the country. We commit ourselves to resist the Bush Administration's drive for ever increasing military spending and a neverending state of war. We must redouble our efforts to build a people's coalition that will drive the ultra right out of Congress next November.

Co-signing the advertisement with Sinema were Communist Party USA members Joe Bernick, Jack Blawis, Lem Harris, Lorenzo Torrez, Anita Torrez, Carolyn Trowbridge, Steve Valencia, the Tucson and East Valley Clubs of the Communist Party USA and party fronts the Arizona Peace Council and the Salt of the Earth Labor College.

Arizona Together

Shortly after her election in 2004, Kyrsten Sinema and former State Representative Steve May formed Arizona Together, the statewide coalition to defeat Arizona’s same-sex marriage ban. During the course of the two years leading up to the 2006 election, Sinema led the campaign’s effort to raise nearly $3 million, research, craft, and deliver a winning message, and build a broad-based, statewide coalition of community leaders, organizations, and businesses. ^[6]

Arizona made history Nov. 7 2006, when its voters became the first in the nation to reject a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. Wrote Arizona Communist Party USA leader and Arizona Together activist Joe Bernick;^[7]

Why Arizona? How come voters in more liberal states have voted for similar hateful laws while conservative Arizona voted no?

If you were to believe the pundits in the corporate-owned press, our rejection of Prop. 107 was due to the western libertarian traditions, the spirit of Barry Goldwater — you know them, those right-wing Republicans who are against government interference in our personal business and our bedroom...

But a quick check of election returns would have demonstrated to these so-called pundits that Prop. 107 was defeated in working-class and liberal university precincts while passing in Goldwater Republican precincts. In suburban Tucson precincts, the vote for 107 corresponded closely with the vote for the ultra-right, anti-immigrant GOP congressional candidate Randy Graf.

So how did we do it? The answer is: educating, organizing and mobilizing.

As soon as proponents started circulating petitions to put 107 on the ballot, opponents brought out their own clipboards, signing up thousands of volunteers. Arizona Together emerged as the campaign committee, chaired by progressive state Rep. Kyrsten Sinema.

If passed, Prop. 107 proposed to outlaw same-sex marriage as well as nullify domestic partnership laws and registries which covered a majority of Arizona municipal and county workers. Since same-sex marriages are already not legal in Arizona, Arizona Together organizers realized that this was a stealth campaign to play on peoples’ prejudices and turn out Republican voters, and before anybody noticed thousands of unmarried couples would lose their health and other benefits.

Arizona Together called their bluff. It concentrated its educational campaign on the harm 107 would unleash on tens of thousands of working families.

The campaign enlisted the support of Mayors Phil Gordon of Phoenix and Bob Walkup of Tucson. These are Arizona’s two biggest cities, both of which have domestic partnership provisions for their employees. The state AFL-CIO joined the campaign with especially strong support from public employee unions. Tireless educational work eventually won the editorial support of all major Arizona newspapers.

Most important was the grassroots work. More than 18,000 volunteers spent countless hours on education and outreach. Volunteers mailed out over 1 million pieces of literature, more than 100,000 pieces were distributed door to door and tens of thousands of phone calls were made to voters. Money left over was used for three weeks of TV educational ads.

Congressman Raul Grijalva appeared on radio ads calling Prop. 107 an attack on working families. The Grijalva campaign worked closely with Arizona Together, using its literature in their extensive door-to-door canvassing. Also collaborating was the campaign of Gabrielle Gifford, who defeated Graf for an open congressional seat. I didn’t see any of those Goldwater Republicans handing out “No on 107” literature.

Arizona Together lived up to its name. It was able to defeat 107 because its educational campaign showed working-class Arizonans that this was an attack on working people. Almost every working person knows — or is him- or herself one-half of — an unmarried couple, often with children. They are our friends, co-workers, relatives, and they are us. When working people learned that 107 was an attack on all working people, they responded with a resounding “no.”

"Progressive Caucus"

Circa 2008, four members of the Arizona state legislature joined together to form a "Progressive Caucus" for the House of Representatives of the Arizona State Legislature.

They were;^[8]

• Dr. Ted Downing, Tucson, State Representative, Legislative District 28
• Ben Miranda, Phoenix, State Representative, Legislative District 16
• Phil Lopes, Tucson, State Representative, Legislative District 27
• Kyrsten Sinema, Phoenix, State Representative, Legislative District 15

Progressive States Network

In 2010, Kyrsten Sinema served on the Board of Directors for the Progressive States Network, an organization which seeks to "transform the political landscape by sparking progressive actions at the state level".^[9]

Supported Progressive Health Care Reform

In late 2009, Kyrsten Sinema was one of more than 1,000 state legislators to sign a letter entitled "State Legislators for Progressive Health Care Reform". The letter was a project of the Progressive States Network and was developed in consultation with national health care reform advocates, including the AFL-CIO, AFSCME, Community Catalyst, Families USA, Herndon Alliance, National Women's Law Center, Northeast Action, SEIU, and Universal Health Care Action Network. The letter reads in part,^[10]

"Failure to pass national comprehensive health reform now will further jeopardize state and local budgets, undermining public services like education, public safety, and transportation infrastructure... We, the undersigned, call on President Obama and the Congress to enact bold and comprehensive health care reform this year – based on these principles and a strong federal-state collaboration – and pledge our support as state legislators and allies in pursuit of guaranteed, high quality, affordable health care for all."

"Unite and Conquer"

Kyrsten Sinema’s first book, Unite and Conquer: How to Build Coalitions that Win and Last, was released in July 2009 by Berrett-Koehler Publishers.^[11]

References