Tragically, Senator John McCain died 13 months after he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer known as glioblastoma. He was 81 years old.
McCain had been in Arizona and absent from the U.S. Senate for months as he battled the deadly illness. Now, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey must fill his vacant Senate seat with an appointee who will finish McCain’s term, which will end in 2020.
Arizona is an interesting state politically. Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake were some of the most outspoken anti-Trump critics in the Republican Party. And yet the state is one where the electorate strongly supports President Donald Trump and his conservative agenda. That has made for an interesting dynamic in the primary to replace Flake, and it certainly is on the mind of Ducey as he decides who will replace McCain.
There are a number of highly qualified candidates who may be selected. But the one that has been subject of the most speculation is McCain’s widow, Cindy.
As People Magazine recently reported:
Sen. McCain’s widow, Cindy McCain, 64, is one possible replacement, a Capitol Hill source tells PEOPLE.
“Rumors are circulating that Cindy could step in, but other names are being floated too,” the insider says. “Some are more or less qualified than others.”
Cindy McCain has to be one of those “less qualified” candidates the unnamed source mentioned.
At age 64, Cindy run her family’s beer distribution business – Hensley Beverage Company – and she’s personally worth approximately $300 million. And she has been an outspoken advocate for victims of human trafficking, and has frequently filled in for her husband at public events.
But the Senate is not a beer company, and McCain’s widow has a record that should make Republicans nervous.
LOUISVILLE, KY – SEPTEMBER 17: Cindy McCain attends the 2016 Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Awards at Marriott Louisville Downtown on September 17, 2016 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Stephen J. Cohen/Getty Images)
Let’s flash back to the 2008 president campaign against Barack Obama. Then-candidate McCain, who by September is starting to realize that the media no longer loves his “maverick” style, is in trouble. His wife Cindy makes things worse by telling Katie Couric that she doesn’t want to see Roe V. Wade overturned, and admitted her husband agreed. Here’s the transcript:
Couric: And do you believe Roe V. Wade should be overturned?
McCain: No. no.
Couric: No. Why not? Your husband does.
McCain: No. I don’t think he does.
In addition, Cindy McCain is not stranger to controversy. In the Savings and Loan “Keating 5” scandal, which should have ended John McCain’s political career long ago, Cindy and her father Jim Hensley were key figures in the wrong doing. As AZ Central explains, Cindy’s wealthy family took full advantage of John McCain’s powerful position:
The Keating Five became synonymous for the kind of political influence that money can buy. As the S&L failure deepened, the sheer magnitude of the losses hit the press. Billions of dollars had been squandered. The five senators were linked as the gang who shilled for an S&L bandit.
S&L “trading cards” came out. The Keating Five card showed Charles Keating holding up his hand, with a senator’s head adorning each finger. McCain was on Keating’s pinkie.
As the investigation dragged through 1988, McCain dodged the hardest blows. Most landed on DeConcini, who had arranged the meetings and had other close ties to Keating, including $50 million in loans from Keating to DeConcini’s aides.
But McCain made a critical error.
He had adopted the blanket defense that Keating was a constituent and that he had every right to ask his senators for help. In attending the meetings, McCain said, he simply wanted to make sure that Keating was treated like any other constituent.
Keating was no ordinary constituent to McCain.
On Oct. 8, 1989, The Arizona Republic revealed that McCain’s wife and her father had invested $359,100 in a Keating shopping center in April 1986, a year before McCain met with the regulators.
The paper also reported that the McCains, sometimes accompanied by their daughter and baby-sitter, had made at least nine trips at Keating’s expense, sometimes aboard the American Continental jet. Three of the trips were made during vacations to Keating’s opulent Bahamas retreat at Cat Cay.
More than 40 women have taken over for their husbands following their deaths in Congress, including eight Senators. But Senate seats are not family heirlooms and it’s time to end “widow succession.”
In addition, with Cindy McCain likely to help stand in the way of President Trump’s agenda, Republicans can’t afford the damage she could do to that Senate seat, including handing it over to Democrats in 2020.
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