He hasn’t taken office yet, but already Arizona State Representative-elect Daniel Hernandez has made it clear that he won’t be taking his duties all too seriously. Hernandez, who drew criticism this past election cycle for lying about having a college degree, has already taken to Facebook to express his disdain for his colleagues and committee assignments.
Hernandez has been assigned to the Judiciary and Public Safety Committee and the Federalism, Property Rights and Public Policy Committee. In response to congratulations for his assignment to the Federalism, Property Rights and Public Policy Committee from a Facebook friend, Hernandez posted: “It’ll be fun to be on tin foil hat and black helicopter committee!”
Reps. Ceci Velasquez and Bruce Wheeler sat on the Federalism Committee last year. Wheeler opted not to run this year, and Velasquez was convicted of food stamp abuse.
Related article: Rep. Cecilia Velasquez Indicted For Suspected Food Stamp Fraud
Under the leadership of Chair Rep. Kelly Townsend last year, the Federalism Committee passed legislation that protected the Salt River Wild Horses, free speech on college campuses, and private property rights.
Hernandez has parlayed the tragic shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the shooting deaths of 8 others on January 8, 2011 at the hands of a lunatic into a somewhat successful political career. His election to the Arizona Legislature will be one of the few paid positions the high school graduate has ever held.
According to the Sahuarita Sun’s article, From the Editor: Why Daniel Hernandez doesn’t deserve your vote:
Most of us know Hernandez as the intern credited with saving Gabrielle Giffords’ life after she was shot Jan. 8, 2011. He’d been working in her office about a week when he found himself a minor player in a major international story. He’s the one walking alongside the gurney in that iconic photo of Giffords being taken to a med-evac copter.
The shooting put Hernandez in demand. He has given hundreds of media interviews, was President Obama’s guest at the State of the Union speech, rode as grand marshal in a Seattle parade, wrote a book, and has recounted Jan. 8 in scores of speeches across the country. He became equal parts activist and politician, even winning a seat on the Sunnyside Unified School District board where he helped dump a lousy superintendent. He has been appointed to commissions, received awards nationwide, writes opinion pieces for top-flight news organizations and knows how to pump up crowds at rallies. As a gay Latino, he is held up by dozens of organizations and makes the short list of emerging young leaders. One recent headline on his House race asked, “He saved Gabby Giffords. Can Daniel Hernandez save Arizona?”
At 26, Hernandez has quite a resume.
Unfortunately, it isn’t entirely true.
While many of his democrat colleagues are reaching out to majority members in an effort to secure a chance that their bills will receive a fair hearing, Hernandez is making enemies early. His hostility is surprising given that the Civility Center sprang out of the January 8, shooting.
Not only has his hostility surprised some members, it may have violated Rule 19:
IMPERMISSIBLE DEBATE
A. No member shall be permitted to indulge in personalities, use language personally offensive, arraign motives of members, charge deliberate misrepresentation or use language tending to hold a member of the House or Senate up to contempt.
B. If any member be called to order for words spoken in debate, the member calling him to order shall repeat the words excepted to; and they shall be taken down in writing at the Chief Clerk’s desk and read aloud to the House, but he shall not be held to answer or be subject to the censure of the House therefor if further debate or other business has intervened.
C. If any member, in speaking or otherwise, transgresses the Rules of the House, the Speaker shall, or any member may call him to order, in which case he shall immediately sit down unless permitted to explain; and the House shall, if appealed to, decide the case without debate.
If the decision is in favor of the member called to order, he shall be at liberty to proceed, but not otherwise; and, if the case requires it, he shall be liable to censure or such punishment as the House may deem proper.
D. There shall be no debate at the Third Reading or Final Passage of a bill except by a two-thirds vote of the members elected to the House.
Chair of the Federalism Committee, Arizona State Rep. Bob Thorpe stated, “It’s incredibly unprofessional for a brand new Democrat legislator, who hasn’t even been sworn-in yet, to publicly denigrate the State House and the committee that ‘Democrat leadership’ assigned him to sit on. Why exactly did Hernandez run for the House in the first place if he apparently hates the institution? By burning bridges, he will no doubt be ineffective at representing the important interests of his constituents who elected him.”
“Luckily for Hernandez, he has not yet been sworn into office so he can be as big an asshole as he wants until then. I wouldn’t want to be one of his constituents counting on him getting a bill passed, or even heard in committee for that matter,” one Capitol insider told the ADI.
Vice-chair of the Federalism Committee, Rep. Mark Finchem stated, “It might be more productive for the representative-elect to listen and respond to constituents, than to impugn his future colleagues. If this is his idea of civility in political discourse, which I thought the Civility Center was organized to promote, I can hardly wait to see an encore.”
Sergio Arellano, a popular Arizona leader in the Hispanic community stated, “It’s really unfortunate the voters of Legislative District 2 decided to trade in a very hard working and effective legislator like Chris Ackerley, for one that doesn’t appreciate the institution and doesn’t take the job seriously the people elected him to do. I do not look forward to the lack of representation the poor residents of Santa Cruz and Pima counties will experience. The welfare of residents in the second poorest county in the state is at stake, and this guy thinks it’s a joke to forfeit his ability to get their work done at the Capitol.”