Was Rep. Kyrsten Sinema homeless enough to become a senator?

Opinion: Republicans are mocking Sinema over some of the details of her life in an abandoned gas station. Then again, it WAS an abandoned gas station.

The Republic | azcentral.com

Kyrsten Sinema and her family lived in an abandoned gas station when she was a child.

Kyrsten Sinema has used her personal history to advance her political career. About that there is no doubt.

She speaks of how, when she was a child, her family moved from Arizona to Florida and lived for a time in an abandoned gas station/grocery store with no running water or electricity.

There is no argument about the abandoned gas station.

They lived in one.

Amenities?

But over the years there have been questions raised about the “amenities” that came with the tiny building. That is, if “amenities” is even remotely the right word.

A few years back The Arizona Republic’s Rebekah Sanders did a lengthy profile of Sinema. In it, she spoke to the building’s owner Tom Paschal, who told her that the grim 800-square-foot building had a wood-burning stove and an outdoor water spigot.

Sinema didn’t recall it that way.

This week The New York Times did a very similar profile to the one produced by Sanders, in which the Times reporter wrote of court filings in which Sinema’s mother and stepfather list bills for electricity, gas and a phone.

Meantime, those same parents provided a statement to Sinema’s campaign reading in part, “Kyrsten is right about this challenging time in our lives. After we married, we left Tucson with the anticipation of a job in Florida, which did not materialize. With no source of income, we lived in Andy’s parents’ closed country gas station without electricity, bathroom facilities or running water.”

Clearly there is a difference between memories and a paper trail. Still, in spite of these inconsistencies the Times points out:

'Deeply trying circumstances'

What is not in doubt is that Ms. Sinema and her family were living in deeply trying circumstances, relying on assistance from the local Mormon Church to which they belonged.

Given that, it seems more than a little ridiculous to quibble over the creature comforts enjoyed by Sinema and her family during their time in a grim block building.

The Times article nevertheless inspired Republicans to publish a nasty missive on gop.com under the headline “Help Me I’m Poor.” In it, the GOP says of Sinema that “court documents and interviews with her own family show she’s been lying all along.”

Lying?

Help me I’m poor?

Not poor enough?

Actually, Sinema and her family most certainly were poor. Also, she most certainly worked her way out of it, an up-from-the-bootstraps reality Americans celebrate – when not looking to trash political opponents.

In telling her backstory has Sinema exaggerated about how bad off her family had it?

Possibly.

But do Republicans really want to mock a candidate for not being homeless enough?

During her childhood Sinema’s family was impoverished.

Ridiculing her over the details only proves that you are morally bankrupt.

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

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