Why it matters where Sinema caucuses after leaving the Democratic Party

“I’ve known Richard for such a long time,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., of retiring Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee. “I knew Richard when he was a Democrat. We go back a long way.”

Alabama voters first sent Shelby to Washington in the fall of 1978 as a freshman Democrat to serve in the House. Shelby moved to the Senate as a Democrat in early 1987. He switched his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican the day after the 1994 midterm elections. Shelby retires in early January as a conservative Republican — although perhaps not as conservative as some GOPers would prefer.

But as Pelosi says, few toiling in Washington these days remember when Shelby was a Democrat.

Shelby’s party switch in 1994 made a splash. Republicans had just flipped the Senate, scoring 52 GOP seats. Shelby’s move made it 53. Former Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., ditched the Democrats a few months later, giving Republicans 54 seats.

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Shelby’s move the day after the election punctuated the bicameral Republican victories. Not only did it win the Senate, but the GOP seized control of the House for the first time in four decades. 

Shelby’s decision to abandon the Democrats didn’t have any practical effect on which party controlled the Senate. However, it did make a statement, emphasizing that Washington was under new management.

“We’ll be happy to accept other applications,” Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., proclaimed at the press conference welcoming Shelby to the GOP.

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In short, all party switches are not equal.

That brings us to the recent transmogrification of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz. Sinema quit the Democrats and joined a political “Switzerland” occupied by independents Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Angus King, I-Maine. Yet Sinema, Sanders and King aren’t quite “Switzerland.” They agreed to “caucus” with the Democrats.

It’s notable that, like Shelby, Sinema announced her decision to leave the Democrats the day after an election. Sinema departed right after Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., prevailed in a runoff election over Republican challenger Herschel Walker. 

Democrats were already assured control of the Senate after…