Career
In 2012, Chavez mounted a campaign as a Republican write-in candidate against Democrat Editor Pastor for the District 7 seat. Incumbent Pastor was challenged by Democrat Rebecca Witt in the August 2012 primary for the 7th Congressional District, but Pastor "easily bested" Witt. Chavez ran as the only Republican candidate.
In that election, Pastor was elected to a 12th term in congress, "easily" winning the election.
With Chavez mounting the write-in campaign, he was not listed as the official Republican in election result announcements. In 2013, Chavez ran for the Phoenix City Council District 4 seat.
"Longtime" councilman Tom Simplot announced that he would not seek reelection for the 2013 election, which resulted in more candidates running for one City Council seat than any other district in the United States that election. Candidates included Chavez, then running under Scott Fistler.
Jeffrey Brown; Dan Carroll.
Austin Head. Justin Johnson, son of former Phoenix Mayor Paul Johnson. David Lujan; and Laura Pastor, daughter of Editor Pastor.
At the time, Chavez had lived in Phoenix eight years.
Early results showed Kate Gallego and Laura Pastor leading the polls. Chavez" bid for the City Council seat was unsuccessful, with Pastor, Gallego and then incumbents Jim Waring (District 2) and Sal DiCiccio (District 6) comprising the council. Chavez changed his name from Scott Fistler to Cesar Chavez in December 2013.
Chavez rebutted those accusations, saying the name change was to get a shorter name, an easier to pronounce name, and that he was inspired by a dog food brand.
The official reason Chavez listed for changing his name on court paperwork was that he "had experienced many hardships because of his name." Chavez was charged $319 for the name change. On June 17, 2014, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge John Rea ruled that Chavez was ineligible to run based on the signatures being invalid.
Chavez represented himself in court and stated that he would appeal the ruling. He also appealed to voters to "funnel money" to him and to find him an attorney.
The Arizona secretary of state"s office stated that almost half (just under 700) of the signatures were invalid.
Chavez"s 2014 campaign website was hosted on Blogspot.