Grandson of Cesar Chavez sues Arizona House candidate 'Cesar Chavez'

PHOENIX, June 11 (UPI) -- The grandson of Cesar Chavez is suing the Arizona congressional candidate who changed his name to that of Chavez's grandfather in an admitted attempt to gain name recognition in a largely Hispanic district.

"What drew the attention of Alejandro [Chavez] was Scott Fistler sort of cynically changing his name to Cesar Chavez," attorney Jim Barton told the Washington Post. "We wanted to basically call out what we saw as an effort to confuse the voters." Barton filed the complaint and is representing Alejandro in the suit.

Born Scott Fistler, Chavez changed both his name and political party earlier this month to run for Rep. Ed Pastor's congressional seat in Arizona's 7th Congressional District.

According to the suit, Fistler "intends to induce supporters of one of the legitimate candidates for Cong. District 7 to refrain from voting for that candidate and to instead vote for Fistler, confusing him with the civil rights leader... or one of the leader's descendants."

"I feel that he's going to get thrown off the ballot," Barton said, adding, "we believe he is trying to corrupt the process."

When asked about efforts to remove him from the ballot, the newly-minted Cesar Chavez, responded characteristically flippantly, quoting MC Hammer, saying, "My campaign is too legit to quit."

The lawsuit also challenges the legitimacy of the over 1,000 signatures that qualified the man formerly known as Fistler to run for office.