Editorial board

Arizona Republic

Kyrsten Sinema’s triumph as Arizona’s first woman U.S. senator gives her a place in history. There’s no question about that.

But there’s more to the story.

The Arizona Republic editorial board picked Sinema as our 2018 Person of the Year for her historic triumph in the Senate race – as well as her iconoclastic vision of how politics should work.

Her unique style suggests she will use this opportunity to take her place in Arizona’s gallery of bigger-than-life public figures.

Her background gives her an up-from-the-bootstraps authenticity. Sinema was born middle class, but she tasted poverty when her family hit hard times. She talks about depending on free breakfasts and lunches in school.

How did she win in a state like Arizona?

Her past as a flamboyant leftist activist was toned down during her successful Senate campaign in Arizona – a state not known to favor flamboyant leftist activists.

Yet with a history as colorful as the (infamous) tutu, Sinema reflects the brand of 100 percent Arizona individualism that other famous Arizonans used to make their mark. Think of Morris Udall, Sandra Day O’Connor, John McCain, Cesar Chavez and Barry Goldwater.

As the first woman senator from Arizona, Sinema is a beacon for opportunity for those who have long felt locked out of political power.

She becomes the state’s first Democratic senator since Dennis DeConcini left office in 1995. And she did so by winning in a state that helped elect Donald Trump. Accomplishing that took an astute understanding of our Arizona – where it has been and where it is going.

Ironically, Sinema used a strategy she articulated in a book she wrote in the Obama era.

If she continues to follow her own advice, Sinema could be the tonic for what ails America’s body politic.

Sinema showed us what politics needs

“Once we’ve freed ourselves from the limiting definitions of identity politics, we’re ready to form relationships with people and groups outside of our comfort zones,” Sinema wrote in her 2009 book, “Unite and Conquer.”

She goes on: “By learning to make friends with new people, people who are different from ourselves, we open up creative possibilities for great political work.”

Make friends with new people?

People who are different from ourselves?

In this political climate?

Holy mackerel.

That kind of cooperative spirit is exactly what’s lacking in today’s politics.

She learned the futility of bomb-throwing

Sinema’s understanding of political realities is leavened with optimism and an apparent joy in the life of public service she has chosen.

During her years as a Democratic lawmaker in Arizona’s GOP-controlled Legislature, Sinema “consciously chose to reject the bomb-thrower role,” as she puts it in her book.

This choice came after a session in which she gave “scathing speeches” against bills that subsequently passed with supermajorities. She recognized this as an unfulfilling exercise in futility.

Then she became the good-natured centrist she is today.

Sinema began reaching across the aisle and putting herself in a position to have an impact on the content of legislation that passed.

She showed the discipline to stay on her carefully modulated course throughout her senate campaign, even as her opponent accused her of being a “liar” and a “traitor.”

Sinema's optimism is contagious

Some criticized Sinema for being too scripted during this campaign. Too practiced. But in these days when politicians fire tweets first and consider the potential impact later (if at all), Sinema’s kind of self-restraint is refreshing and welcome.

So is her bonhomie.

“I love people,” she writes in her book. “I love talking to people, working together and making friends.”

It shows. And it is contagious.

In the Arizona Legislature she made friends with Republican Russell Pearce, the author of the draconian immigration bill, SB 1070. He was seen by most Democrats as an unreachable extremist.

During her years in the U.S. House, she became close friends with Republican former U.S. Rep. Matt Salmon, a solid conservative by anybody’s definition.

How will she make her mark?

What she describes as her “extraordinary interest in talking to people,” manifested itself when she was a child “wandering away from my family at Tucson Mall, hanging around another random family for a bit to see what they were up to.”

Eventually, she’d ask a mall security guard to help her find her own family again.

And you thought the pink tutu was strange.

This is a woman who began as a social worker before deciding to get a law degree and run for the state Legislature so she could “wield some of that power for good,” as she put it.

Sinema’s vision of politics as a way to find common ground, build coalitions and get things done fits the classic definition of the job of elected officials. Yet in this era of rancid partisan bitterness, Sinema’s approach is nothing less than revolutionary. It represents a refreshing change – a badly needed change.

As a senator, she’ll have the biggest stage of her political career. She’ll have the task of delivering political clout to Arizona, which has lost the senatorial longevity and gravitas of McCain and Jeff Flake.

We don’t think Sinema will have any trouble making her mark with the kind of flair and substance that reflects well on Arizona – a state with a history of producing impressive public figures who write their own stories.

This is an opinion of The Arizona Republic's editorial board. What do you think? Send us a letter to the editor to weigh in.

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