The young intern who held former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords immediately after she was shot in the mass shooting on January 8, 2011, is now being targeted for recall due to his effort as a Sunnyside Unified School District governing board member to stop corruption and cronyism. According to supporters, Daniel Hernandez and his fellow board member, Buck Crouch, are being threatened with recall by two other board members who are facing recall for giving Superintendent Manuel Isquierdo a contract extension.
Hernandez, who first came into the public’s consciousness as the intern who comforted Giffords as emergency crews worked to save her, was elected to the governing board of the school district from which he graduated.
Sunnyside, one the of the state’s largest districts, has been plagued with corruption under the leadership of long time board president Louie Gonzales and superintendent Manuel Isquierdo. The district has been cloaked in a veil of fear under Isquierdo and Gonzales’s leadership.
Just this month, Crouch filed a complaint for violations of Arizona’s Open Meeting Law by board members Eva Dong, Bobby Garcia, and Gonzales.
Marcos Castro, Gonzales’ campaign manager, is behind the Hernandez and Crouch recall effort.
While Gonzales says the recall effort is not in retaliation, he has said that if the recall effort against him is stopped, he will drop the recall effort against Crouch and Hernandez.
Both sides need 1300 signatures to get the recall on the ballot.