Republican Calls Out Democrat Opponent for Labeling Her State a 'Meth Lab of Democracy'
The campaign for Arizona GOP U.S. Senate candidate Martha McSally called out her Democratic rival, Kyrsten Sinema, following the release of a second video in as many days showing Sinema badmouthing her home state while speaking at events outside of it.
In a video published on Friday, Sinema, then a state senator, told the audience at the 2010 Netroots Nation convention (an annual gathering of liberals) in Las Vegas that Arizona is the “meth lab of Democracy,” the Washington Examiner reported.
Motioning toward a screen beside her, Sinema said, “As we see in this very quote that the states are the laboratories of democracy and then my state, Arizona, is clearly the meth lab of democracy.”
“Yeah, I cannot take credit for that line. Someone at the ‘Daily Show’ wrote it, but I’m happy to steal it and use it all the time,” the lawmaker added.
The McSally campaign tweeted the video, writing, “Caught on camera again: @kyrstensinema mocks Arizona.”
CAUGHT ON CAMERA AGAIN: @kyrstensinema mocks Arizona: "Arizona is clearly the meth lab of democracy." #AZSEN pic.twitter.com/gdd57eGa7z
— Martha McSally (@MarthaMcSallyAZ) October 12, 2018
McSally is in a tight race with Sinema to fill the seat currently held by retiring Republican Sen. Jeff Flake.
The RealClearPolitics average of polls taken over the last month finds Sinema with a slight 1.8 percent lead over McSally.
However, an KNXV-TV/OH Predictive Insights poll published Tuesday gave McSally a 6-point advantage, 47 to 41 percent, while a CBS News/YouGov survey found Sinema ahead by 3 points, 47 to 44 percent.
On Thursday, the McSally campaign tweeted video of Sinema referring to her home state as “crazy” while speaking at a political event in Texas in 2011.
“When we grew up I remember in first grade we learned a song about Arizona because Arizona is the state of the five ‘C’s,’ so cattle, copper, citrus, cotton and climate,” Sinema, then a state senator, told the Texas Stonewall Democratic Caucus, a pro-LGBT group.
Sinema, who identifies as bisexual, added, “Those are the five things our state historically made its money off of, but I would add a sixth ‘C,’ it’s called crazy.”
The McSally campaign responded to the video, tweeting, “If @kyrstensinema thinks Arizonans are so bad, why is she running to represent them all in the US Senate?”
If @kyrstensinema thinks Arizonans are so bad, why is she running to represent them all in the US Senate? #AZSEN
Watch the full video: https://t.co/YWJYNGMEwV
— Martha McSally (@MarthaMcSallyAZ) October 11, 2018
In the video, Sinema also warned, “I say, quite simply, Arizona coming to a state near you. It’s true. Because over the last several years people would watch what is happening in Arizona and be like, ‘Damn those people are crazy. Is there something about the water?’
“No, the water is fine. We stole it from Colorado. There’s nothing wrong with the water. There’s something wrong with the people in public office in Arizona.”
She added, “People say, ‘Oh, the tea party, the tea party.’ Those people have been in charge for like 20 years in Arizona. They’re called Republicans,” Sinema said. “Tea party, Republicans, it’s all the same thing. It’s called crazy.”
In response to the video released Thursday, Sinema campaign spokeswoman Helen Hare told The Arizona Republic that the video makes clear the candidate was expressing her frustration.
“She was frustrated that no one in the state legislature was standing up to out-of-state special interests working to take away health care from children, make tuition more expensive, and take job security away from working families,” Hare said in a written statement.
However, the main issues Sinema spoke about in the video were Arizona’s immigration enforcement law, SB 1070, and its informed consent law concerning abortion.
In a written statement to The Republic, Torunn Sinclair, McSally’s spokeswoman, contended that the video shows Sinema is not fit to serve in the U.S. Senate.
“Arizonans want a senator who is going to have their back, not call them crazy,” she said.
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