If a textbook on winning campaigns is ever written, exhibit A should be the State Assembly Campaign of Nathan Fletcher.  He cleared the Republican field in the open seat of one of the prize Assembly seats in California —beautiful, prosperous, coastal– yet Republican.  The seat is about 80% city of San Diego, with Poway, some county land, and part of Escondido rounding it out. 

Historically, this seat has been a vicious primary— lot of candidates, lot of money and the winner emerging in a tight and hotly contested race.  The 2008 contest for the open seat of termed out Assemblyman George Plescia looked early to be no break from the past. 

Surprisingly, when Republican voters go the polls next Tuesday they will see only one choice:  Nathan Fletcher.  What Nathan Fletcher did is remarkable.  How did a first time candidate, without personal money to scare people away, manage to clear the field in one of the best Assembly districts in California ?  Especially given the ideological divides that often show up in GOP primaries – especially in San Diego — given Nathan’s strong credentials as a social and fiscal conservative leader.  To those of us that have known Nathan for years it was not a surprise. 

He simply outworked everyone else.  Nathan grew up in a blue collar family and that work ethic paid dividends in this race.  He announced first and set about to raise more money in each reporting period than any Assembly candidate in the state—of either party!  That includes those who put in buckets of their own money!  He gathered endorsements—including key San Diego endorsements like Governor Pete Wilson , the entire county legislative delegation, and the Mayors of all the cities in his district.  He simply overwhelmed all the competition.  Nathan was also very innovative in the use of video, audio, and next generation web tools to reach a new audience of voters.  At the end of the day, no other Republican even pulled papers to run for this seat.   

So he won’t have a tough race, but if someone thinks Nathan didn’t earn his stripes in a campaign keep in mind he is a Marine who was decorated for valor for performing courageously under direct and sustained enemy fire.  He served as a counterintelligence specialist on a tour in the Sunni Triangle region of , Africa and likely others places he could tell you—but then he would have to kill you.

Once it looked like he would not have a tough race did he stop working?  Nope.  There are a lot of candidates out there very happy that Nathan is not in a tough race.  Nathan was the only candidate to give over $30,000 to the assembly leadership committee of Mike Villlines last year-and will likely do it again this year.  Nathan has also contributed to John McCann (78^th), Gary Jeandron (80^th), Danny Gilmore (30^th), Gabriella Holt (54^th), Jeff Denham (recall) and a host of local candidates.  He has organized precinct walks for local city council candidates, called his major donors on behalf of the targeted races and demonstrated the model of a team player.

More importantly, he knows the importance of working his district.  The 75^th, while a Republican seat is a costal one and he isn’t taking anything for granted.  We need dedicated candidates like Nathan to solidify Republicans and turn them out.  Additionally, we need to gain the support of DTS voters (very high percentage in the 75th) and even get some pro-veteran Democrats.  He can do that.

Nathan is going to be an Assemblyman and a very good one—while I am proud to call Nathan my good friend, having known him for many years, and worked many campaigns with him, I will share with FR readers on a closing note that Nathan is – crazy.  He has… “extreme hobbies” —mountain glacier climbing, harley riding, jumping out of perfectly good airplanes, and ironman triathlons.  All of this is mitigated by his good sense in marrying another friend, the former Mindy Tucker.  Even though Nathan’s a great guy, she makes him an even better person.  And, while Nathan’s a pretty conservative guy, it will be good to have Mindy on hand to kick him in the posterior if he starts to go native up in Sacramento!

Crazy or not, Nathan represents the next generation of Republican leaders – his future is very bright.  I know I speak for a lot of his friends when I express personal pride in his accomplishment – and we expect him to be the best legislator up there!   No pressure, buddy…

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This entry was posted on Saturday, May 31st, 2008 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.