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HHHDC CO-President Larry Caballero
By Brian Hews
The man known as the Happy Warrior, Hubert H. Humphrey, would not have been happy.
Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia, who was accused of drinking and having sex with elected officials in her Assembly office, hurling racial slurs and epithets at fellow elected officials, asking staffers to play spin the bottle and go buy beer after parties, and harassing employees, has surprisingly been endorsed by the Cerritos Hubert Humphrey Democratic Club led by their Co-President, La Palma resident Larry Caballero.
Caballero sent out an email to HHHDC members today writing, “last night we learned about the new tax cut that favors the rich and endorsing candidates. Please vote and/or support the following candidates, Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia; Assessor Jeffrey Prang.”
Just days earlier an Assembly “investigation” found Garcia, “commonly and pervasively used vulgar language around staff; that Garcia has used staff in the past to perform personal services; and that Garcia has disparaged other elected officials.”
“I guess that is acceptable behavior to the HHHDC, Caballero, and the Democratic Party said one local Republican.
But the Garcia investigation did not pursue other more serious allegations, and a recent article by HMG-CN called into question the transparency of the investigation.
The serious allegations against Garcia not only included the office drinking, the pressuring staff to join her in drinking, but also ordering staff to perform campaign activities in the Assembly office including fundraising and donation request calls, retaliation, and bragging about having sex in her office with other elected officials.
Sources are telling HMG-CN that the allegations of Garcia bragging about having sex in her office could implicate “other married elected officials from Central California” and is the reason why the inquiry ended so abruptly.
Immediately after the findings were revealed, Speaker of the Assembly Anthony Rendon slammed Garcia and removed her from every committee, basically leaving her only with the power to vote on the floor and no power to influence.
Nonetheless Caballero said, “She is committed to [sic] do a good job.”
The HHHDC could have passed on endorsing Garcia, or anyone else, leaving the endorsement open, but Caballero chose Garcia.
In endorsing the embattled incumbent, the HHHDC and Caballero snubbed Friné Medrano, who was recently endorsed by Senator Kevin De Leon and is also endorsed by Worker’s United- SEIU, along with Ivan Altamirano, the current Mayor pro tem of Commerce who was endorsed by Norwalk Councilman Luigi Vernola.
When asked to confirm, Caballero indicated if you showed up to the meeting you would get the endorsement. He told HMG-CN, “.. only Cristina showed up to speak. She is committed to [sic] do a good job, and the club was supportive.”
Mario Guerra, former Downey Mayor and former President of Independent Cities told HMG-CN, “Nothing I see in California politics today surprises me anymore. Especially coming from groups that say they care about equality and social justice and yet take a blind eye to further their own political best interest. The back room deals seem to continue. I wish they would actually work with their members to take active roles in helping solve so many of our problems. We need leadership in Sacramento. Heck, it’d be nice to have representation so maybe leadership is too much to ask for?”
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