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Democrats hold every statewide office and, thanks to a new redistricting system once favored by the California GOP — despite its near-bankruptcy, the party funded not one but two rounds of ballot initiatives to get it passed but is now underwriting lawsuits to have the redistricting plan overturned — the party is on a glide path to devastating losses in U.S. House and state Legislature races in November.
The latest casualty in the party’s death spiral is the defection of one its few — maybe even its only — young power couples. Assmb. Nathan Fletcher, a candidate for mayor of San Diego, and his wife, the former Mindy Tucker, who served in high profile positions in the George W. Bush administration, the Republican National Committee and the Schwarzenegger administration, announced last week that they had abandoned the Republican Party for good and registered as independents.
Nathan Fletcher, 35, is a well-spoken, camera-ready combat veteran of the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Like most Californians, however, he is fiscally conservative but socially liberal on issues like women’s rights, gay rights and the rest — positions that are heretical to the ragtag cadre of teavangelicals, neo-Confederates and Mormons who have a stranglehold on the state GOP.
How significant is Nathan Fletcher’s defection? Here is the assessment of George Skelton, a columnist for the Los Angeles Times who writes about state politics:
A legislator abandoning his party is not unprecedented. I can recall a handful over the decades. I just can’t remember anyone jumping overboard with such potential to captain the ship.
Fletcher, 35, handsome, athletic, substantive, was a Marine intelligence officer who earned combat decorations in Iraq. In fact, he’s the first combat veteran of the war on terror to serve in the California Legislature.
He was elected in 2008 and is married to the former Mindy Tucker, a one-time spokeswoman for President George W. Bush. She joined him in bolting the GOP to become an independent.
Fletcher’s surprise move says at least two things: 1, an up-and-coming politician believes he’s better off not burdened by the Republican label; 2, he really can’t stomach the GOP or party partisanship.
Fletcher has everything the California GOP might need to go up against the Democratic Party’s up-and-coming leaders, including Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, Attorney General Kamala Harris and Rep. Jackie Speier — all of whom will be in the running for California governor and U.S. senator in the next decade or so.
But rather than switching affiliations to the Democratic Party, the Fletchers’ decision to register as independents will likely hobble Nathan Fletcher’s ambitions for statewide office.
