The legend of Nicole Parra keeps growing -- in Republican circles, that is.

The latest to jump on the Parra train is Assembly Member Greg Aghazarian. The Stockton Republican is running for the state Senate in a Democratic-leaning district. In a new radio ad running in the Sacramento market, he praises Parra for refusing "to put party politics ahead of the interest of the people she was elected to represent."

Parra, D-Hanford, was booted from her office on Monday by Assembly Speaker Karen Bass for refusing to vote for a state budget until lawmakers agree to put a water bond on the ballot.

Democrats have criticized her stand as nothing more than petty "vote trading," but water-thirsty Central Valley farmers have made Parra into a bit of a hero.

Now Aghazarian is pumping her up even more in the ad:

"Her name is Nicole Parra and her district includes the farms, homes and business of the lower Central Valley where water issues are paramount. She understood what a lot of us here in the Central Valley have come to understand and that is that partisanship can become a weapon that has little to do with philosophy and everything to do with the raw political power of big urban majorities."

Listen to the entire ad here.

Aghazarian, by the way, was the only other lawmaker present Sunday who abstained on the budget, which failed along party lines. But he likely had a different motive than Parra. Running in a moderate district he can't afford to align himself too closely with conservative Republicans, who voted no on the budget because it includes tax increases.

As for Parra, she continues to work out of a one-room office across the street from the Capitol. The Sacramento Bee has pictures here.

On Thursday, she was spotted kibitzing with Republicans in the office of Assembly GOP leader Mike Villines. She quickly denied rumors that she was switching parties, a move she threatened in June.

Parra not only lost her office, but she says Democrats have refused to move her bills forward. But Parra said she's transferring them -- two bills and one resolution -- to other authors.

"Other people are moving them, so they won't die," she said.