Grand Canyon Times

The Election Transparency Initiative, chaired by former Virginia Republican Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, has announced a grassroots campaign to hold Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) to her promise to protect the filibuster, the Senate rule that requires 60 votes to end debate on legislation and bring the measure to the floor for a vote.

The rule has allowed Senate Republicans, in 50-50 vote split with the Democrats, to bottle up sweeping election legislation, (House Resolution 1, House Resolution 4, Senate Bill 1, Senate Bill 4, Senate Bill 2039, and Senate Bill 2747).

“While we don’t always see eye-to-eye with Sen. Sinema, standing up for the Senate’s rule designed to ensure bipartisanship and prevent the majority party from pushing aside the minority party to ram through controversial legislation isn’t a Republican or Democrat issue—it’s just common sense," Cuccinelli said in a statement. "In the face of intense partisan pressure to cave on her promise, Sinema should be applauded for her principled commitment to the time-honored system of consensus-driven decision-making in the Senate.”

In statements of her support of the filibuster, Sinema has invoked the legacy of the late Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, and her “personal hero.”

“It’s no secret that I oppose eliminating the Senate’s 60-vote threshold,” Sinema wrote in a commentary published in the Washington Post. “I held the same view during three terms in the U.S. House and said the same after I was elected to the Senate in 2018. If anyone expected me to reverse my position because my party now controls the Senate, they should know that my approach to legislating in Congress is the same whether in the minority or majority.”

Cuccinelli warned that the election “takeover legislation” proposed by the congressional Democrats would eliminate a state’s authority to required voter ID, a rule, he said, is supported by 81% of U.S. voters.

The federal legislation, critics argue, would also pave the way for voting rights for those in the country illegally, and undermine other voter safeguards recently enacted by some states.