Bonnie Garcia

Bonnie Garcia (R-Cathedral City) was the representative of California's 80th Assembly District, serving eastern Riverside County and all of Imperial County.

Assemblywoman Garcia was elected to the post in 2002, being the first Hispanic woman to represent the district and the first Puerto Rican elected to statewide office in California. By 2004, Garcia had become a member of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's transition team after the recall election against Gray Davis and was named as one of California's delegates to the Republican National Convention.

Garcia was one of five children born in Manhattan's Lower East Side to a young Puerto Rican couple who divorced soon after her birth. At age thirty-eight, after years of night classes, Garcia earned a Bachelor of Science degree in workforce development from Southern Illinois University.

Governor Schwarzenegger's off-the-cuff comments made September 7, 2006 on the temperament of Latin individuals are claimed by him and his campaign to be made in part due to his close working relationship with Garcia and her own admittedly "fiery temperament." Stock footage shown on the Fox News Channel in relation to the issue shows Garcia standing to the governor's right and Garcia, a fellow Republican, stated that she was "not offended by the Governor's comments."

Schwarzenegger referred to Garcia as "very hot" and went on to say "I mean, they [Cubans and Puerto Ricans are all very hot...they have the, you know, part of the black blood in them and part of the Latino blood in them and together that makes it" (see [1]).

In October 2006 Garcia told a Young Republicans' Club at La Quinta High School that the governor had a good body and she "wouldn't kick him out of bed." Upon facing criticism, she apologized if anyone took her seriously. [2]

She was ineligible to seek reelection to the State Assembly in 2008 due to term limits. On December 31, 2008, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed Garcia to the state's Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board, an appointment that pays $128,000 per year.^[1]

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