UPDATED: Is ‘Democrat’ Mario Garcia a Stealth MAGA State Senate Candidate in LD24?

UPDATE: Garcia’s campaign management team has resigned from his campaign as a result of his having lied to them about his association with Lake. The firm is a well-known progressive firm and reportedly decided to cut ties upon learning that the photo of Garcia with Lake was taken at a GOP event and not a business event, as Garcia had told them.

END UPDATE.

These are desperate times for Arizona’s GOP. They are struggling – and failing – to hold on to power in Arizona. They have lost so much ground in recent cycles that they are likely to try almost anything to cling to power as they face the extinction of their majority in the Arizona Legislature this fall.

Could they be trying to secretly insert a cuckoo bird into our Democratic nest in LD24’s State Senate race?

Based on the social media posts of one Mario Bustos Garcia, who has qualified for the ballot in the July primary for State Senate against current LD 24 House member Analise Ortiz, it seems possible. At the very least, Mr. Garcia has some explaining to do to the Democrats of LD24.

First, in August of 2022, during the Gubernatorial campaign of Kari Lake against our Democratic candidate, Katie Hobbs, Mr. Garcia reposted several posts of Kari Lake regarding Latinos for Lake.

These might be easily explained, of course,, as Mr. Garcia does not actually seem to have commented on these reposts, just reposted. Maybe he’s pointing out how extreme and terrible she is? Maybe he’s concerned that she seems to have been getting significant Latino support and he’s just concerned and pointing that out? Lots of innocent explanations spring to mind.

But Mr. Garcia has restricted viewing on ALL these posts on his social media feeds as soon as these posts were mentioned in public by his primary opponent Representative Analise Ortiz. That’s a bit unusual. Were there an innocent explanation, why would he hide these reposts instead of simply explaining them?

Oh, well. It’s not really conclusive proof of, well, anything at all.

But Mr. Garcia has also posted a photo of himself WITH Kari Lake?

Yes, he did.

Again, no comment with the post, but they certainly seem friendly. Maybe he’s having a laugh at her expense? Still, Mr. Garcia owes the Democratic primary voters of LD24 an explanation of this, at the very least. Again, the post is now private and cannot be viewed in his history.

But what is this? A post of a photo of Mr. Garcia with a Republican AZ Lege candidate while holding his campaign sign? Yep.

This one seems to really call for some serious explaining by Mr. Garcia.

Here is a current supposedly ‘Democratic’ candidate for office holding the sign of Gary Garcia Snyder, a MAGA Republican candidate of LD23 who had a Democratic opponent, now AZ Senator Brian Fernandez, at the time of the post? That seems to be the clear endorsement of an opposing Republican candidate to me.

The voters of LD24, and the Democrats of Arizona, deserve serious answers from Mr. Garcia. He seeks to be nominated to the Senate in one of our strongest districts. If there is any concern about his dedication to Democratic principles or his commitment to vote with our caucus, his nomination could be disastrous to our ability to control the chamber next session, even if we win a majority.

Are the AZGOP desperate enough to try running a secretly MAGA candidate in a Democratic primary to deceptively undermine Democratic control of the Arizona Senate should we win a majority?

You bet your sweet bippy they are!

Mr. Garcia needs to be asked some seriously pointed questions, and had better provide some seriously exculpatory answers.