Bonnie Garcia 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.
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