A potential cautionary tale for Senator Sinema [View all]

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In 2002, Jesse Helms retired from the Senate and Elizabeth Dole decided to run for the Senate. Her family had long standing ties to the Salsbury region of NC and she rather easily won (53.5 to 44.9). She was the Senator. Six years later, 2008, and she ran for re election. Honestly, given her and NC track record, this should have been a fairly easy race for her. But it absolutely wasn't. Yes, 2008 was a very good year for us, in NC we won a senate seat, a governorship, and carried the EC of NC. She didn't just lose, but she lost by, by far, the largest margin of all three races. Obama won, rather famously, but by 0.4%. Had our state been needed to put him over the top, we would have had a recount. The governor's race was won by 3.3%, an OK win but not exactly huge. Dole lost by 8.5%. A switch in margin of 17%. So how did this happen?

What happened to Dole. Well, she was just plain lousy at being a Senator. She never was in NC, never spoke to constituents, never answered letters, never answered phones. She was just plain absent. Every time I see Sinema refuse to engage with her constituents I think of Senator Dole and how many of us would complain about our absentee senator. If I were on her staff I might be studying Dole to see why this behavior is a bad idea.