LANE VIOLATION: Mariluz Garcia can’t seem to pick a side! Part II
Read our original story covering Mariluz Garcia by clicking here.
Mariluz Garcia is a candidate for Washoe County Commission, District 2 against Kyle Isacksen and Hawah Ahmad. This is an interesting race as it is one of the most “educated” races being run in Washoe County. Garcia has a Bachelors, a Masters, and a Ph. D.; Kyle Isacksen has a Bachelors and a Masters; Hawah Ahmad has two Bachelors, a Masters, and a Juris Doctor. This is in comparison to some Reno City Council races where a majority of the candidates only have their high school diplomas, such as the primary race between Bonnie Weber, Meghan Ebert, and Dennis Owens for Ward 4.
Garcia has noted how she is running to represent one of the most diverse districts in Washoe County, a campaign point identical to that of Hawah Ahamd - it is a fact. District 3 is the most diverse district in Washoe County as well as one of the most productive, in terms of business output and employment. The question is, how do you show that diversity? Ahmad’s ad was claimed to be filmed entirely in District 3, and we can see some shots that are presumably filmed in Sun Valley and at the University of Nevada, Reno; overall we can’t prove that all of Ahmad’s ad was filmed in District 3, but there is no evidence to say otherwise. Ahmad also claimed to have contracted a business located in District 3, which per her C&E’s she contracted a media business that comes back to a home address in Sparks.
Garcia didn’t film her ad in District 3. Garcia’s current C&E’s are pretty baron, as are Ahmad’s, but we couldn’t find any PR company, consulting firm, or media production company listed as of this writing that Garcia has paid monies to. We do have evidence that Garcia filmed her ad outside of District 3 thanks to photographic evidence submitted to us by a fervent reader. According to the reader that took these photos near Brown Street in Reno, which is outside of District 3. While we didn’t get GPS data to verify the photo, we are confident we identified the house being utilized and it is not in District 3. (A note, these photos were submitted by a reader, who coincidently saw a ‘film set’ and took a photo out of curiosity.) Now, it isn’t a big deal for commercials, film, and TV to be filmed in places other than where they claim it to take place, but for a local political races the attention to detail matters. Now for Kyle? We couldn’t find any video ads his campaign has produced at this time.
In addition to this, Garcia is focusing on representation for minorities, as is Ahmad, but one of her big campaign focuses is her wish to be the first Latina elected to the Washoe County Commission. Ahmad has mentioned in articles that if elected, she’d be the first Asian-Arab-Muslim elected to the Washoe County Commission, but it doesn’t come up as frequently or as forcefully as Garcia’s wish to be the first Latina.
On top of wanting to be the first Latina on the Washoe County Commission, Garcia also pushes education, and how she would solve Washoe County’s problems through problem solving techniques she found successful as a middle school counselor. In all honesty, solutions that work for middle school students are unlikely to work for bickering elected officials.
Our question for Garcia: Why didn’t you run for the Washoe County School District Board of Trustees?