Poll: 61 percent of Arizonans say passing major bills is more important than keeping the filibuster

[DonViejo]

Source: Vox


Most of Arizona’s likely voters are open to rules changes in the Senate — despite Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s objections.

By Li [e-mail] Mar 9, 2021, 11:40am EST

Ask likely voters in Arizona — one of the states with a moderate Democratic senator opposed to ending the filibuster — and they’re more interested in passing major legislation than keeping Senate rules intact, according to a new poll.

In a February Data for Progress survey, 61 percent of likely voters in the state said they favor approving key bills, compared to 26 percent who think it’s more important to “preserve traditional Senate procedures and rules like the filibuster,” though the response differed notably across party lines. Seventy-six percent of Democrats thought approving major legislation was more important, as did 66 percent of independents, while just 42 percent of Republicans did.

Currently, because of the legislative filibuster, most bills require 60 votes to pass, giving Senate Republicans the ability to stymie major Democratic priorities, including voting rights legislation, gun control measures, and immigration reform. If Democrats were to eliminate the filibuster, a stance that the full caucus — including Arizona Sen. Krysten Sinema (D-AZ) — has yet to back, they’d be able to pass such bills with just a simple majority, or 51 votes. (Democrats hold 50 votes in the evenly divided chamber, but if the caucus sticks together, Vice President Kamala Harris can cast a tie-breaking vote in their favor.)

This data indicates that the majority of Arizona’s likely voters would back a procedural change in the Senate if it was needed to approve important legislation, an issue that Democratic lawmakers will likely have to confront later this term as they weigh what, if anything, to do about the filibuster.

Read more: https://www.vox.com/22320606/arizona-kyrsten-sinema-poll-filibuster

[Lonestarblue]

1. Sinema may want to stop her on-camera voting antics and listen to her constituents.

Her performance last week was juvenile.

[AZ8theist]

5. So DISAPPOINTED in her right now...

[kimbutgar]

2. Doesn't she realize that she will be impacted if she lets the GOP get away with voter suppression in

Arizona. They got a big target in her to take back that seat in the future!

[PatrickforB]

3. I think Americans in general are pretty darned sick of having a national

government that does not work, and the filibuster is responsible for killing nearly 300 bills the House passed in the last session. I mean, I know the concerns about what will happen when (if) we are in the minority again and there's no filibuster, but when it is used to shut all output down for a two year stretch, it is unacceptable. It really is.

Not only that, but if we as a party have the guts to force the end of it, and we pass a bunch of transformative legislation, we won't have to worry about being in the minority for a long time. Because the Republicans have nothing, NOTHING, in terms of policy.

They have done not one darned thing to materially benefit the American people since before 1980. We have, and if we eliminate the filibuster, Biden will become a truly tranformative president. It could right up there with FDR.

[lagomorph777]

4. The other 39% have no idea what a Fella Buster is.

[AZ8theist]

6. What a state of wankers (as the Brits would say..)

Don't my fellow Zonies understand that NO MAJOR BILL WILL EVER PASS as long as Repukes can filibuster???

OF COURSE we want major legislation to get enacted and repair the damage done to the country by Benedict Doturd.
But all you need to see is the Repuke support of the Covid relief bill....

IT WAS FUCKING ZERO.

HOW MUCH MORE EVIDENSE DOES ONE NEED TO SEE?????????

[malthaussen]

7. Imagine a Congress with a majority of Lauren Boeberts.

This spectre is what keeps conservative politicians hang on to the filibuster.

I'm kinda surprised it hasn't occurred to anyone to use a nakedly political move: trash the filibuster, pass the agenda, then re-instate it. It is, after all, just a Senate "Rule," it can be altered more-or-less at whim. That this has never been the game of the GOP suggests that even they have limits to what they will do.

-- Mal

[Steelrolled]

8. I don't care much whether they keep the filibuster or not

but I think asking the general public about something like filibuster does not provide useful information. Reminds me a little of Brexit.

[IronLionZion]

9. Arizona has been getting bluer over the years

while Kyrsten Sinema has been going more conservative. Arizona is not like West Virginia.