Kyrsten Sinema Racks Up The Frequent Grifter Miles As Senate Career Ends
Kyrsten Sinema Racks Up The Frequent Grifter Miles As Senate Career Ends
Shame is the one thing she won't buy.
Kyrsten Sinema has shown little interest in the upcoming Senate and presidential races in Arizona, a state she theoretically still represents in Congress. She’s also shown little interest in Arizona itself, as she’s traveled quite extensively between July and September, like she’s a tax-dodging snow birder.
The founding member of the Sinema Party billed about $216,000 for travel during those three months, according to her latest campaign finance report. Of course, Sinema doesn’t have a campaign. The one-term Senate wonder announced in March that she’s not running for re-election, so that’s a lot of financial activity for a non-existent campaign.
Sinema’s campaign reportedly paid for trips to France, Japan and the U.K., and while those are great vacation destinations, they don’t seem the least bit campaign related. Wine-tasting in Bordeaux or exploring Tokyo Disneyland would in no way turn out the vote for Rep. Ruben Gallego or Vice President Kamala Harris.
The campaign also paid $152,000 for her security-related expenses, presumably to ensure her safety while touring the Harry Potter studios in London. Put into context, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign paid $83,000 for all of 2021, post-insurrection when she was a target, and she’s usually in the continental U.S.
The Arizona Republic reports that the security expenses include $431 for admission to a Washington Nationals baseball game. This was probably in July when the Nationals defeated the Milwaukee Brewers 6 to 5.
Sinema’s “campaign” spent an additional $4,000 on admission tickets for security. This includes $161 in July for the Pacific Amphitheatre in Costa Mesa, California, which is not in Arizona. This was during the Pacific Amphitheatre Summer Concert Series, and it’s unclear if she saw Cake, Reverend Horton Heat, or Kool & The Gang.
Sinema had a reported $10.8 million in her campaign treasure chest last year. Her fundraising plummeted toward the end of 2023 as Democratic donors started contributing heavily to the actual Democratic candidate. Sinema strung along her corporate donors for as long as she could, despite cratering poll numbers, until she officially withdrew from the race she hadn’t actually entered.
Still, Sinema managed to burn through more than half her campaign funds. She ended September with just $5 million. Her campaign blew at least $18,000 on overseas expenses, which include $5,600 on “meeting meals” (why do I imagine that she’s still not a great tipper?)
Although she never held a town hall meeting with constituents during her drive-through Senate career, Sinema did hold a “Donor Thank You Event” with bills totaling $80,000. Undisclosed recipients received “appreciation gifts” worth $1,100.
Sinema’s campaign did refund $5,100 in previous donations and graciously donated a whopping $6,5000 to such charities as the Scottsdale Fraternal Order of Police, the Phoenix Police Foundation, and Jazz Aspen Snowmass in Colorado, another state that is not Arizona.
A Sinema Party spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for a comment from the Arizona Republic, which is admittedly a local paper and not Le Figaro, Yomiuri shimbun, or The Sunday Times, where Sinema can best reach her preferred constituents.
Is this even legal?
During her single term in office, Kyrsten Sinema lived like a rock star hedonist with both taxpayer and campaign funds. She spent $20,000 in campaign dollars on “wine-related expenses.” She’s blown $10,000 at posh restaurants with names that sound like Le Top Drawer. She’s burned through at least $45,000 on chauffeurs since 2019, and she paid a luxury car service $4,000 for a single day in New York City. She also dropped $22,891 on $1,000-a-night rooms at five-star hotels.
The Daily Beast reported in January that her campaign shelled out $70,000 for private jet travel and she spent “roughly $210,000 of her U.S. Senate office budget on private charter flights for herself and her staff.”
Not everyone who donated to Sinema’s campaign was a wealthy investor, PAC, or Republican donor grateful that she stymied Democratic initiatives. A lot of this money came from normal working people who can’t even afford to fly Economy Plus. Sinema’s actions are shady and corrupt, but since this is politics, not specifically illegal.
“Part of the problem here is lax enforcement by the FEC. Even though there are pretty strict rules about using campaign funds for personal use, it can be very difficult to parse out when a violation has actually occurred,” explained Eric Petry, counsel in the Brennan Center’s Elections and Government program.
“You have to look at the details,” he said. “You end up in these scenarios where things just seem a little off. But at the end of the day, the chance of effective enforcement at the FEC is very low, and a lot of candidates or campaigns know that.”
Fortunately for Sinema, her Bialystock & Bloom production probably doesn’t keep its campaign expenses in separate ledgers marked “Show To The FEC” and “NEVER Show To The FEC.”
‘She wants to lead the glamorous life’
The people’s senator (if those people are Kyrsten Sinema) might’ve quit politics, but she’s not yet done with the glamorous life. She went to Normandy in June for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, when Allied forces invaded German-occupied France. This was technically official business, as Sinema is chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans’ Affairs. (Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer let Sinema keep her deluxe committee assignments after she ditched the Democratic Party in 2022.)
This obviously wasn’t a campaign expense, nor did it serve any political purpose because Sinema is affirmatively a party of one. You could perhaps excuse her self-serving nature when she at least held a seat that maintained the Democratic majority, but she’s a lame duck who won’t even openly support the non-fascist party.
Astroscale, a Toyko-based company that removes space junk (it’s probably cooler than it sounds but still not Star Trek), shared a photo of Sinema visiting its headquarters in July.
“We're honored to have hosted U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona at our Tokyo headquarters!” Astrocale posted on Facebook.“With the ORBITS Act of 2023 passing the Senate last November, it was inspiring to see her enthusiasm for advancing the safety, stability, security, and long-term sustainability of space.”
The ORBITS Act — some of that bipartisan legislation Sinema adores — passed the Senate last year but has gone nowhere in the MAGA Mad House. It’s not clear why this warranted a personal visit from Sinema, especially one that her campaign funded. While in Tokyo, she spent $2,856 on meals, including $1,262 for a single dinner at Nobu Tokyo. I can imagine her laughing and saying, “Sake to me!”
In August, Sinema attended the Paris Summer Olympics, where she participated in the amateur “Marathon for All.” She worked up an appetite, as she apparently spent $1,625 on meals.
“I’m just so honored and privileged to be a part of an incredible event,” she told Arizona State University’s Cronkite News in Paris. “It’s really just a privilege to be here.” (“Here” was not Arizona, where she spent $1,060 for a hotel room in the state where she supposedly lives.)
When asked about the upcoming presidential election, she couldn’t bring herself to say, “Vote for Kamala Harris and not the drooling psychopath.” Instead, she said, “Look for the candidates who want to bring people together and solve problems.” That’s obviously Harris. “The person who’s making the most noise on Twitter is not usually the one who’s going to solve your problems.”
Conversely, the person who posts inspirational quotes of the day on social media and jets around the globe during a critical election where democracy itself is at stake doesn’t care much about your problems, either.
Mitt Romney, who’s also leaving the Senate this year, reported $224,521 in campaign spending between July 1 and September 30. Retiring Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin’s campaign spent just $23,440, or what Sinema might call a long weekend.
Well I guess she's spending it while she can because the precise momment she's "Ex-Senator Curtsey Sinema" all those people she'll call about getting a fatcat lobbyist grift are gonna be all 'New Phone, Who Dis?'
She is just a grifter!!