Here's the strongest signal yet that Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is not running again

Comes now the strongest signal yet that U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is not running for reelection:

Her weakness for luxury travel on the taxpayer’s dime.

The Daily Beast is reporting that Arizona’s senior senator has racked up $210,000 in private air travel, courtesy of you-know-who.

While other members of Congress are cramming into the cattle car with the rest of us, Sinema is a frequent high-flier — yukking it up on Gulfstreams and Cessnas and such.

Sinema’s liberal use of our cash to fly in style is not illegal. She gets roughly $4 million a year to spend on office needs, including staff salaries, transportation and supplies.

It is, however, idiotic for a supposed public servant to pamper herself on the public’s dime.

That is, if she really has any interest in being reelected.

Sinema has a long list of accomplishment

Once upon a time, there was every reason in the world to believe that Sinema would run again and should run again.

Her fingerprints are all over some of the most consequential legislation to pass during one of the most polarized periods in our history — bipartisan bills to help veterans, fund infrastructure, address gun violence, protect same-sex marriage and boost the production of semiconductors.

While her would-be opponents, Democrat Ruben Gallego and Republican Kari Lake, lob daily potshots at each another, Democrat-turned-independent Sinema is working on an as yet-unseen border compromise that reportedly makes it easier to remove migrants from the country and harder to claim asylum.

It’s likely doomed thanks to a certain former president who ranks his need to be reelected over the country’s need to secure the border.

Still, can you name another member of Arizona’s congressional delegation who can match Sinema's record of accomplishment?

Yet Sinema still trails third in Senate race

Of course, none of that matters because though we say we want leaders who will work across the aisle and get things done, we really don’t.

Democrats despise her. Republicans only tolerate her. Sinema trails a distant third in every public poll about the coming election.

My guess is she’s known for a while now that she’s one and done.

How Sinema could win: As an independent

It’s become clearer with each passing day that Sinema does nothing to get started on collecting the roughly 45,000 voter signatures she would need to get on the ballot as an independent. That’s more than six times the number of signatures that either Lake or Gallego must collect, and she’s only got until April 8 to get them.

So yeah, no. Especially if that which would be her triumph, border compromise, is DOA courtesy of DJT.

Sinema must be starting private life early

More likely, Sinema will finish out her term, then cash in with Big Pharma or some private equity firm. Former senators, especially those who leave on their own terms, can pretty much write their own tickets to millionaire-land where jets are a dime a dozen.

So why not get started early?

The Daily Beast reports that Sinema has flown privately 11 times since 2020 on the taxpayers’ dime, including five times over the last year. That’s precisely 11 more times than Sen. Mark Kelly has done so.

Sinema’s spokesman, Hannah Hurley, said traveling by private plane gives Sinema more time to connect with Arizonans in every corner of the state.

All that connecting, however, comes with a cost … to us.

One of Sinema’s trips — an August hop from Washington, D.C., to the Grand Canyon for Sinema and four of her staffers — cost us $50,000. This, so that Sinema could stand front and center at the ceremony where President Joe Biden formalized the creation of a new national monument, Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni.

According to Google, you can fly from D.C. to the Grand Canyon for $593.

But then, if you’re not running for reelection, really, why should you?

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LaurieRoberts.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Sen. Kyrsten Sinema signals (by plane) that she isn't running again