Somos Independents is a woman-led organization that focuses on signaling to key swing independent voters towards moderate / centrist views.   We do not believe in extreme views, and we put people needs before party needs.  We do not believe in persons who attack members of protected classes, and we believe Arizona State Senator Quezada owes Cesar Chavez an apology for his "lipstick" attack (who is a member of the LGBT community).

 

Cesar Chavez is running for Arizona State Representative.  Cesar Chavez is the most qualified to represent the undocumented community, speaks fluent Spanish, is Gay and a Chicano/Latino who is a product of public education in his own district. However,  Arizona State Senator Martin Quezada made it clear he would not support Chavez from day one and instead supports someone who is married to Monical Pimental who is also the Chair of Precinct Committeemen for LD29 in light of his colleague and newly ousted State Rep. Ceci Velasquez recently indicted on welfare-fraud charges.

 

When the time came for Senator Martín J. Quezada  to support a Cesar Chavez who is member of the #‎LGBT community -- he chose not to, and instead made a lipstick attack against him on twitter today.  Sen. Quezada (an avid Bernie Sanders supporter) essentially calls César Chávez a "fake Democrat" which is something taken from the Bernie Sanders campaign when supporters referred to Hillary Clinton as a fake Democrat or a Barry Goldwater Republican.   Quezada's "fake Democrat" remarks are reminiscent of when Tea Party Republicans refer to moderate Republicans as "Republican In Name Only (RINO)."  Quezada has no standing to call anyone a fake Democrat considering he asked Somos Republicans to pull strings with the Maricopa County Republican Supervisor leadership when a seat was made available and was vacant.

 

The Cesar Chavez campaign told our organization while he was out collecting 700 signatures from his own district, Quezada more than likely used political cronyism to promote Marshall Pimentel who is married to Monica Gallardo Pimentel who is the CHAIR of precinct committeemen.   Hence, Marshall won by only 5 votes (vote was 12 - 7).  Never mind the 700 signatures Cesar Chavez collected. On Twitter, Quezada claims Marhsall Pimental helped his LD29 team collect signatures, but also failed to disclose Pimental helped collect signatures for Velasquez --  a felon Quezada helped get elected. Most in the public did not know about the felony charges, however, Quezada did know about Velasquez's fraudulent situation and continued to support her as an Arizona representative anyway.

 

At this stage in the Arizona political game, it would be smart for Quezada to avoid political cronyism considering he knowingly supported a felon for Arizona State legislature and has an Open Meeting Violation Complaint filed against him and is being investigated by Attorney General Mark Brnovich's office.  We used to support Quezada for office but we are unable to considering the open meeting law violation complaint made against him by Larry Nolen.  Nolen was a teacher in an Arizona school district for 25 years and a member of the teacher's association for at least 15 years.  He was also a past President of Pendergast Federation of School Employees for 8 years, but also served as Vice President of the federation for 4 years.    

 

Cesar Chavez is the most qualified to represent the undocumented community, speaks fluent Spanish, is Gay and Chicano/Latino who is a product of public education. Chavez went to school in the district while Pimental did not. As such, Cesar Chavez has our full endorsement for Arizona State Representative. He has no political baggage and seems humble and contrite enough to serve as a public servant for the State of Arizona. We cannot turn a blind eye to felons as Quezada did, and we cannot support criminal activity.  Quezada is supposed to be a member of the Arizona Bar Association, and he should conduct himself accordingly, because as it stands it appears that he has allowed politcal power to go to his head and he seems to have turned corrupt.

 

 

###