New lawmaker Q&A: Rep. Brian Garcia

From Sinema to state politics … Thanks, Obama! … And speedy carpetbaggers.

Democratic Rep. Brian Garcia has had a wild political journey.

He kickstarted his political career working with former U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, and went on to earn law licenses in three states.

And now he’s won his first elected office by inadvertently ousting his running mate, longtime Democratic lawmaker Juan Mendez.

Garcia teamed up with Mendez, who served in the state Legislature for 12 years, to take over the House seats in Tempe-based Legislative District 8.

But even with the incumbent advantage, Mendez lost in the primary election by 346 votes.

Garcia said he volunteered for Mendez’s early campaigns before ultimately taking his spot, which he called a “full circle moment.”

If even one reader upgrades to a paid subscription, Nicole won’t have to borrow Curt’s Zoom account anymore.

There’s no bad blood, Garcia said. And veteran lawmaker Mendez offered him the advice of “always going back to what drove us to run in the first place.”

The new lawmaker has an extensive background in Indigenous law and, as a member of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, Indigenous issues are a priority for him.

Garcia also led the Tempe Union High School Governing Board during the height of COVID-19 — a feat he said was “incredibly tough” — but he navigated it with student safety at the forefront.

And in 2013, Garcia started his political career working in public policy for Sinema.

While he admitted “we disagree on policy positions,” Garcia credits the Democrat-to-independent-convert for his political success.

“She was one of the few folks that saw potential in me, particularly at that time. I'm the first one of my family to graduate high school … (and) a former (English Language Learner) student, and so she took a chance on me and mentored me along the way,” he said. “And I certainly would not have even thought about going to law school if it wasn't for her.”

And, of course, we took the time to ask him more pressing questions:

Q: What’s a hidden gem or cool place in your district most people wouldn’t know about?

A: Gold Bar Espresso

Q: What’s one thing you wish you had known before taking office?

A: “I have learned to be comfortable in the unknown, and so I'm really taking it a day at a time, a week at a time, and just taking everything in and just being grateful for the privilege to be here and getting to learn along the way. So I'm not too sure.”

Q: If you could trade places with any other politician for a day, who would it be?

A: “Not necessarily a politician, but I would love to get to see the day-to-day (of) Supreme Court Justice (Sonia) Sotomayor.”

Q: If House Democrats had a Spotify playlist, what song would you add to it?

A: “Soy Yo” by Bomba Estéreo. “That's a nice pump-up song and always gets me prepped for really anything.”

Q: Is there a personal story or experience that you’ve lived through that you feel has shaped your legislative views more than anything else?

A: Shortly after he was sworn into the Tempe school board in 2019, Garcia lost his dad to pancreatic cancer. His brother wasn’t allowed to wear Native regalia at his graduation, and “as a result, our dad never got to see him graduate with his Native regalia.”

You can watch our full interview with Garcia here.

Don’t believe the government/internet: The Trump administration has created a media spectacle since announcing a widespread immigration crackdown, but experts say there is little evidence so far of a mass deportation program, the Republic’s Daniel Gonzalez reports. Meanwhile, the Trump administration appears to be attempting to juke Google results by reposting old press releases about immigration raids, some of them dating back to the Obama era, the Guardian reports. As for the roughly three-dozen migrants deported to Guantánamo Bay, legal experts are concerned they entered a “legal black hole,” where officials don’t release names of the accused or the criminal charges they face, the Washington Post reports.

“All of that is intended to send a message to immigrants to be afraid and that they’re coming for you,” Lindsay M Harris, an immigration and asylum law professor at the University of San Francisco, told the Guardian. “Regardless of the actual numbers, the optics of these mass arrests throughout the country have very real ramifications.”

Greenbacks for the Diamondbacks: Gov. Katie Hobbs said she supports the concept of spending tax dollars on stadium repairs to keep the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team in Phoenix, the Republic’s Stacey Barchenger and Taylor Seely report. The money would come from diverting state and local taxes to the team under a bill that’s making its way through the Legislature and Hobbs said she’d wait to see the details before throwing her full support behind the details of the measure. Meanwhile, Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego came out against the proposal, saying the money would be better spent on police and fire departments.

We’re still waiting on a bill to divert state and local taxes to local independent news outlets. Until then, please subscribe!

Fits and starts: Despite an order by the Trump administration to stop funding for electric-vehicle charging stations, the first batch of 18 stations is moving forward, the Arizona Daily Star’s Tony Davis reports. The remainder of the 85-station network planned for Arizona is still up in the air while the Federal Highway Administration comes up with new guidelines.

All politics is local: The Scottsdale City Council is bringing the Trump administration’s crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion policies to the local level, the Scottsdale Progress’ Tom Scanlon reports. The city council is going to talk about getting rid of DEI policies at its meeting Tuesday, along with an Elon Musk-inspired ban on remote work. Speaking of Musk — Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes was part of the multistate lawsuit that forced Musk to destroy the records his DOGE team had downloaded from the Treasury Department, including your social security and bank account information.

Crypto bros: After landing a spot on a subcommittee overseeing crypto regulations, U.S. Sen. Ruben Gallego is buddying up to crypto investor Marc Andreessen, who’s hosting a ritzy fundraiser for Gallego featuring Substacker Matt Yglesias, per Rolling Stone. A crypto Super PAC spent $10 million boosting Gallego’s campaign last year.

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Terrifying: After an American Airlines jet collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River last month, killing dozens, the Republic digs into all the near-misses at Phoenix Sky Harbor in recent years.

"This is unacceptable and is only a matter of time before there is an accident," said a pilot in 2015 who nearly hit a drone.

"I would just like to emphasize how close this was," said another in 2018 who insisted the passenger and crew could have died after almost hitting a helicopter.

We should have been consultants: Democratic Rep. Lauren Kuby thinks that by renaming the Arizona Corporation Commission, she might be able to get people to pay attention to Arizona’s powerful “fourth branch” of government, per the Capitol Times’ Reagan Priest. Unfortunately, Kuby wants to call it the “Public Utility and Corporation Commission,” which is far too boring a name to achieve her stated goal. We’d suggest the “Arizona Power Players Panel” which brings a little dramatic flair to regulating business and utilities.

If you have a better name for the Arizona Corporation Commission, leave it in the comments. We’ll make sure Kuby sees your suggestions.

SB1441: Making school board elections partisan

Sponsor: Republican Sen. Carine Werner

• What would it do?: Require school board candidates to be elected through partisan elections.

  • Proponents argue it will increase voter turnout and accountability by aligning candidates with familiar party platforms

  • Opponents say partisan school board elections would introduce divisive politics into education and distract from the focus on student needs.

• Impact: The bill would go into effect in the next election.

  • Starting in 2026, all school board candidates would run as either Republicans, Democrats, independents or as members of another third party.

• Status: The bill is alive and moving.

  • Scheduled for a hearing on Wednesday, Feb 12, 2025 at 1:30 p.m. in the Senate Judiciary and Elections Committee.

• Big picture: This isn’t the first attempt to make school boards partisan.

  • Last year, former Republican Sen. Justine Wadsack shepherded a bill through the Legislature to do the same thing, but Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed it.

• Get involved: Use our grassroots advocacy tool, Wolfpack, to howl at lawmakers about the bill.

  • If you like the idea, click here to send an email to lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary and Elections Committee about it.

  • If you hate the idea, click here instead.

Last week, we told you that lawmaker and Substacker¹ Mark Finchem was trying to get out of paying a traffic ticket by writing a letter to his local police chief reminding her that the Arizona Constitution exempts lawmakers from arrest during the legislative session.

Well, fellow Republican Rep. Quang Nguyen apparently was not a fan of Finchem’s attempt to use Senate letterhead as a get-out-of-traffic-fines-free card. On Friday, he filed HCR2053, which would ask voters to amend the state Constitution to specifically not protect lawmakers from traffic tickets.

“If a lawmaker is caught speeding, running a red light, or committing any other traffic violation, they should face the same consequences as everyone else,” Nguyen said in a press release.

We have a feeling that message would be a slam dunk with voters at the next election.

While Nguyen didn’t mention which specific lead-footed lawmaker spurred this resolution, it’s worth noting that Finchem is his seatmate — they both represent Prescott’s Legislative District 1.

It also may be worth mentioning the rumors we’ve heard that Finchem is attempting to draft former lawmaker Justine Wadsack up to his district to run against Nguyen in 2026.² You may recall, she also had some speeding issues.

1. Remember, Finchem is just as qualified to write laws as we are!

2. Wadsack and Finchem represented the same Tucson-area district. Finchem carpetbagged from Pima County to Prescott to challenge longtime moderate Republican Ken Bennett in the 2024 election.