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BY BRIAN HEWS
The American Independent Party (AIP) is a well-known far-right political party that started in the late 1960s, when Alabama Gov. George Wallace ran for president on a platform of supporting racial segregation.
Calling themselves “refugee Republicans,” they believe in segregation, limited government, marriage between man and a woman only, secure borders and vehemently oppose illegal immigration.
The AIP openly endorsed current President Donald Trump and VP Mike Pence in the 2016 Presidential election.
Given the party’s racist and homophobic platform, any card-carrying Democrat would not want to be mentioned in the same sentence as the AIP.
Except for California Assembly woman Cristina Garcia.
Records obtained by Hews Media Group from the Norwalk Registrar/Recorder’s office show that Garcia was registered with the AIP for almost a year, from March 2009 to Feb 2010.
Was it a mistake? Texts into Garcia went unanswered.
In 2008 Mark Ridley-Thomas pointed out that Bernard C. Parks, the African American former police chief, had once belonged to the AIP. Parks said he had just been trying to register as an independent and quickly corrected his status.
Gubernatorial Candidate and then Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s wife got caught registering as AIP when wanted to be an independent, but she too quickly corrected the mistake.
It took Garcia over a year to correct her mistake.
The documents show her registration preferences from when she was eighteen years old in 1995 to her final registration in 2010.
Garcia first registered as “Decline to State” in 1995, even though she had just participated in the Proposition 187 Save Our State initiative that prohibited illegal aliens from using non-emergency health care, public education, and other services in the State of California.
Document showing Garcia’s registration when she was eighteen years old as Decline to State.
Garcia remained in Decline to State status until March 2009, when she registered with the AIP.
Document showing Garcia registering with the American Independent Party. The lower circle shows she claimed she was a Democrat, when in reality Garcia’s status was Decline to State.
But on that document that showed her moving to the AIP, Garcia lied about her her previous party affiliation.
Garcia wrote on the 2009 document that she was moving from the Democratic party to the AIP, when in reality it was from Decline to State to the AIP. Garcia signed the document under penalty of perjury.
Garcia remained with the AIP for almost one year, finally registering in March 2010 from the AIP to the Democratic party.
She even indicated she was moving from the AIP to Democratic on the document.
Document showing Garcia registering as a Democrat in 2010. The lower circle shows she confirmed she was with the American Independent Party.
