Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Ex-senator appointed to be McCain’s fill-in through year’s end
PHOENIX — Prolonging the uncertainty over who will fill the late John McCain’s U.S. Senate seat in the long term, the governor of Arizona on Tuesday announced the appointment of former Sen. Jon Kyl but said he has only committed to serve until the end of the year.
Kyl, a Republican who retired from the Senate in 2012 to become a lobbyist and spend more time with his family, is currently shepherding President Donald Trump’s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court. Kyl’s appointment will make it possible for him to vote for the nomination.
It’s unclear what more Kyl, 76, will do in the Senate. He said he agreed to serve briefly out of a “sense of duty” and will not run for the seat in 2020, when Arizona voters will decide who fills the seat through 2022. The seat will then be up again for a full sixyear term.
Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, said Kyl was “the best possible person, regardless of politics” for the job, adding he hopes Kyl serves past the end of the year.
If Kyl does leave the Senate after the end of the current congressional term, then Arizona’s governor can appoint another senator who would serve until after the 2020 election. By state law, the senator will have to be a member of the same party as the departing one, in this case the GOP.
For now, Kyl will pad Republicans’ margin in the narrowly divided Senate. They hold a 51-49 majority, but that dwindled to a single vote while McCain stayed in Arizona for much of this year as he was treated for brain cancer. McCain died Aug. 25.
The GOP is hoping Kyl will be a more reliable partisan vote than McCain, whose opposition to a partial repeal of President Barack Obama’s health care law pitched the party into turmoil last year.
Kyl is well-respected in Arizona and has been able to avoid many of the battles with activists that complicated McCain’s career and that of the state’s other senator, Jeff Flake, who is retiring.
Kyl’s entire career in Washington overlapped with McCain’s, and he served with the state’s senior senator for three terms before stepping down. Kyl carved out a profile as a reliable conservative vote and a foreign-policy expert.
Arizona Republicans close to Ducey said that, even as he considered a variety of possibilities, he kept returning to Kyl.
The governor called Kyl after McCain’s death and asked him if he would accept the appointment. Kyl said he wanted to speak with his wife and consider it. The next day, he called Ducey and said he would serve.
Ducey and Trump spoke about the appointment, but the president was not told that the governor had picked Kyl until Tuesday, according to multiple Republican officials. The president did not request any specific appointee, signaling only that he would like somebody he could work with. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader and a friend of Kyl’s, was aware last week that his former colleague would be named.
McCain’s widow, Cindy, tweeted: “Jon Kyl is a dear friend of mine and John’s. It’s a great tribute to John that he is prepared to go back into public service to help the state of Arizona.”
Doug Cole, a veteran Republican consultant and former McCain aide, said Kyl was a safe pick.
“I think McCain would be very happy with the pick. Honors his legacy while putting some major horsepower for Arizona in the seat, at least for now,” he said.
CRITICISM OF TRUMP
An attorney, Kyl speaks in a formal, reserved manner, and he belongs to an older, less populist vanguard of the GOP.
But Kyl has also at times been unreserved in his criticism of Trump.
In a February interview with Phoenix-based radio station KJZZ, Kyl described Trump as a “phenomenon that has to be dealt with” and took aim at his combative manner.
“I don’t like his style. Much of it is boorish. I think he’s his own worst enemy,” Kyl said of Trump, adding that he “could be much more effective if he were more politic, more diplomatic.”
In the interview, he was also asked whether he would ever return to the Senate. “No,” he said. “And I don’t wish I was still there.”
In remarks last week at a memorial service for McCain at the Arizona Capitol, Kyl made what many interpreted as a swipe at Trump’s friendly relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“When others were looking into Vladimir Putin’s eyes, with an eye of understanding him and reaching accommodation with him, John, of course, said: I looked into his eyes and saw KGB,” Kyl said.
Kyl said Tuesday that he stood by his previous remarks about Trump, though he struck a somewhat softer
tone. In what appeared to be a veiled comparison to McCain, Kyl also joked that the president’s combative nature “reminds me of somebody.”
“I think sometimes, his desire to jump into the middle of a fight or maybe even create a fight — by the way, that reminds me of somebody — but sometimes, that can be detrimental to what he’s trying to achieve,” Kyl said. “That’s what I said, and I stand by that comment.”
Asked about his relationship with Trump, Kyl said he had met the president only once but that he was honored to assist with the Kavanaugh nomination process.
“Well, I don’t really have a relationship with President Trump,” Kyl said, adding: “I believe in Judge Kavanaugh. And in that capacity, I’ve been able to support not just Judge Kavanaugh but the administration.”
During his time back in the Senate, Kyl might have the opportunity to vote on several issues that have been part of his lobbying activities, such as immigration and national security.
Kyl has lobbied on behalf of young migrants brought to the U.S. illegally when they were children, often called Dreamers. Their fate is in limbo after Trump tried to end a program protecting them from deportation and Congress deadlocked on a solution.
Kyl will likely also vote on bills containing tens of billions of dollars for Defense Department programs after he represented defense giant Northrop Grumman. His work was primarily focused on tax issues affecting the company, but Kyl’s firm, Covington & Burling, also lobbied the House and Senate to drum up support for the B-21 bomber, a stealth aircraft Northrop Grumman is building for the Air Force.
The unusual timing of Kyl’s appointment could work out for another Arizona Republican who wants to become a U.S. senator — Rep. Martha McSally.
She’s currently locked in a tough campaign against Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema for the Senate seat Flake is vacating. Should she lose, McSally — a former Air Force colonel who once worked on Kyl’s staff — could be appointed to the McCain seat if Kyl leaves it in January.