Long-time Arizona Sen. John McCain told local conservative talk radio station KFYI on Tuesday that he is considering running for another term. McCain is two years into his fifth six-year term as senator and would not need to run for re-election until 2016.
For those with short memories, McCain was the Republican nominee for president in 2008 when President Barack Obama was elected with more than 60 percent of the 538 Electoral College votes.
In stalwartly Republican Arizona, McCain has fared much better in each of his electoral races since he first rain for Congress in 1982 and later replaced former presidential candidate and long-time senator Barry Goldwater when he retired from the Senate in 1986.
McCain later ran against George W. Bush in the 2000 Republican president primary, which he went on to lose — the first race he’d lost since beginning his career in Washington.
McCain’s devotion to duty and his history of military and public service are admirable traits, even for those who disagree with him politically, as I do.
Whether his party was in the majority or minority in Congress, McCain has always embodied the “loyal opposition,” sticking to his guns but not choking on blind partisanship.
Along with Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., McCain is a member of the bipartisan “Gang of Eight,” working on a comprehensive immigration bill. According to The Arizona Republic, some have speculated that McCain’s willingness to work toward a compromise between wildly different visions of “comprehensive reform” might indicate that his career is “winding down.”
Often, politicians will stay away from sponsoring legislation on “hot button” issues, such as immigration or entitlement reform, for fear of angering their constituents or provoking a primary challenge from their own party — thus, when politicians decide they’re done running for office, they are “liberat(ed) from electoral pressures” and can compromise with impunity.
But it seems McCain is unafraid of the challenge — that’s why he has such a long-standing reputation as a “maverick.”
His status as a maverick, however, is not always a bonus in the modern Republican Party — after he endorsed incumbent Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., for the Republican primary race, Liz Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney and Enzi’s opponent, condemned McCain.
“Liberal Republican senators like John McCain and Olympia Snowe have endorsed my opponent,” Cheney wrote in her fundraising materials. “We must be doing something right if these folks are fighting so hard to preserve the status quo.”
For those in any doubt as to McCain’s ideology, it’s so far from being liberal that those claiming otherwise can only be looking to shill their own ideology with little regard for the constituents McCain has represented so well for these past 30 years — who have chosen to re-elect him time and time again.
While I myself have never voted for McCain, I’m sure glad he’s around.
Reach the columnist at skthoma4@asu.edu or follow her at @savannahkthomas
