The 10News/U-T San Diego poll released yesterday paints a happy picture for Nathan Fletcher boosters who would like to believe he is in a strong position to succeed Bob Filner as mayor. But they shouldn’t get too excited.
Voters are almost completely unaware that he made the full conversion to Democrat and are basing their opinions on the belief that he is still a Republican or that he is still an Independent. The fact is, no one cared that he became a Democrat and there was very modest media coverage of it. Most people had already moved on from Nathan or thought the conversion was a natural progression of his shape-shifting.
Republican, Democrat and Independent voters will be reminded that in March 2012 he made an impassioned speech in pursuit of the local GOP endorsement, extolling his conservative virtues and flaunting his endorsement from Karl Rove; to just 3 weeks later decrying partisanship and declaring himself an Independent, widely viewed as a self-serving reaction to losing the endorsement to Carl DeMaio; and in May of 2013, writing a lengthy justification of his decision to become a Democrat, surprising only the remaining few Fletcher sycophants who clung to the belief that he has any principles.
That’s 3 parties in the span of about a year. When voters are reminded of this, all 3 groups will reject him. Incidentally, Fletcher NEVER performed well with Independents. It is reported that DeMaio won Indies by 4-1 over Fletcher.