Many were surprised at San Diego Board of Supervisors Chairman Nathan Fletcher’s Sunday evening announcement that he was not only dropping his State Senate run, but he was checking into a rehabilitation center for treatment of post traumatic stress and alcohol abuse.
Local NBC7 reported:
San Diego County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher announced Sunday evening he is dropping his run for State Senate, electing instead to check into a treatment center this week for post traumatic stress, trauma and alcohol abuse, according to a press release from his office.
Fletcher took to his Twitter account and issued the following tweet thread from the press statement released by his Fourth District Board of Supervisors office:
Supervisor Nathan Fletcher to seek treatment for post traumatic stress and end Senate campaign to focus on health and family. Read his statement below. pic.twitter.com/5SBV5SkZW3
— Supervisor Nathan Fletcher (@SupFletcher) March 27, 2023
For many years, I've been suffering from devastating post traumatic stress associated with combat piled on top of intense childhood trauma that's been exacerbated by alcohol abuse. While I've shared some of these challenges publicly, they run much deeper than I've acknowledged.
— Nathan Fletcher (@nathanfletcher) March 27, 2023
Fletcher, a Marine veteran who served in Iraq, wrote:
“For many years, I have been suffering from devastating post traumatic stress associated with combat piled on top of intense childhood trauma that has been exacerbated by alcohol abuse. While I have shared some of these challenges publicly, they run much deeper than I have acknowledged. Outwardly, I have projected calm and composure. Internally, I have been waging a struggle that only those closest to me have seen; the detrimental impact on my relationships, mood, and inability to sleep.”
No one who has followed Fletcher and his wife, former Assemblywoman and current Cal Labor chief Lorena Gonzalez-Fletcher is surprised by this revelation. One resident had this to say on Twitter:
Well I feel compelled to wish him well however this idea he’s been a beacon of calm composure I cannot contain the chuckle. He’s been seething rage just under the surface to anyone watching. This surprises me zero.
There is definitely more to the story, and RedState is digging into the underbelly. But it was obvious: Anyone who would implode their first marriage, which according to many reports was picture perfect, then change political parties and start a relationship with then-District 80 Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez in order to become a political power couple, obviously has major issues. Fletcher’s baseless attacks on those who criticize him, his wife, or his pet causes, his erratic statements on policy and governance, along with his erratic record, is another testament that all is not right in his world, and has not been for a very long time.
“I have to seek help. With the recommendation of my therapist and the insistence of my wife, this week I will be checking into an extended inpatient treatment center for post traumatic stress, trauma and alcohol abuse. I have no doubt I will not only make a full recovery, but will come back stronger, more connected and present. However, it is clear I need to focus on my health and my family and do not have the energy to simultaneously pursue a campaign for the State Senate.
“I am grateful to the full love and unconditional support of my wife, family and friends.”
According to NBC 7, Fletcher will be on medical leave. So, despite not choosing to pursue a State Senate run, he is not stepping down as Supervisor of San Diego County’s Fourth District. That is a mistake, and “Fed up With Fletcher,” an organization that has been a longtime critic of Fletcher and has advocated and worked to see Fletcher removed from office, agrees.
🚨 San Diego County Supervisor @nathanfletcher suspends his 2024 State Senate Campaign & checks himself into rehab for PTSD & Alcohol abuse
If Fletcher is incapable of running for State Senate in 2024, then he is by no means capable of holding his current position as Supervisor. pic.twitter.com/ksxEZYQTXd
— Fed Up With Fletcher (@FedUpWFletcher) March 27, 2023
San Diego County Supervisor @nathanfletcher suspends his 2024 State Senate Campaign & checks himself into rehab for PTSD & Alcohol abuse If Fletcher is incapable of running for State Senate in 2024, then he is by no means capable of holding his current position as Supervisor.
That’s about right. And what an insult to the constituents of San Diego who voted for him to have another four-year term as Supervisor that a hair’s breadth away from November 8, he announced a run for State Senate. Now Fletcher chooses to seek help for an issue that he admittedly has struggled with for decades, leaving the Fourth District without representation while he goes through rehab. This is not kicking someone when they are down; I hope Fletcher gets all the help he needs and digs into his healing and recovery. But those who have followed him and the egregious Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher recognize that he is a deeply troubled and flawed individual who has facilitated the destruction of a once-great County and city, and is a piss-poor leader. Fletcher’s horrible record of governance should disqualify him from being anywhere near public office now, or ever again.
RedState has been on Fletcher watch for quite some time, not only in relation to his current wife Gonzalez-Fletcher, but also because of Fletcher’s desperation to not only be in power, but the Fletchers’ joint quest to acquire greater amounts of it with each office. San Diego political watchers recognized this too, way back in 2013, when Nathan and Lorena were just “friends,” and the Democrat apparatus anointed Nathan Fletcher as “the one.”
In the aftermath of the Filner resignation, a group of Democratic Party insiders and money people are continuing to run around with their hair on fire trying to anoint Nathan Fletcher as our savior and discourage other truly progressive candidates from entering the field.
Of course this includes folks like Christine Forrester, who runs a marketing consulting firm that connects businesses with hedge fund money, and former Labor Council leader Lorena Gonzalez, who has long been championing her personal friend, the former Assemblyman with an 18% labor voting record over the vociferous objections of many in labor.
Indeed, anyone who has been closely following the inside moves behind the curtain of the Filner scandal knows that the backroom meetings and fundraising efforts designed to put the fix in for Fletcher began simultaneously with the press conferences that kicked off our month-long three ring circus.
Let me be clear, Filner certainly opened the door for them with his bad behavior but they didn’t waste a second rushing in to ensure his quick political demise and Fletcher’s ascendancy. It’s not a conspiracy; it’s just inside game politics and Machiavellian opportunism at its worst by Democratic power brokers and moneyed interests who want to fix the game before any of us get to play.
To critics, who point out that Fletcher’s actual record on issues is bad from a progressive perspective, the tack will immediately shift to the need to prevent Carl DeMaio from becoming wanker in chief . Fletcher, with his corporate connections that include Irwin Jacobs’: big pockets can quickly pick up a couple million and save us from Carl’s impending reign of terror.
I wrote in 2021 that Fletcher is just another one in that too-long line of political grifters; capitalizing on his charm, supposed good looks, and politically-connected women in order to ascend the political ladder. When Fletcher started in politics, he was a Republican and married to a former George W. Bush communications director Mindy Tucker, and pretty much used her to build his political bona fides. Perpetually hungry for higher office, in 2012, Fletcher couldn’t even clear the hurdle to become San Diego city’s mayor. So, Fletcher started cozying up to Democrats (and Lorena Gonzalez), and lo and behold, he changed his political status first to Independent, then to Democrat (duh). In 2014, he divorced Tucker under a cloud of scrutiny. In 2017, he married second wife Gonzalez, and the toxic duo has been infecting California politics ever since. Fletcher used Gonzalez’ political clout at the time to slide into the Board of Supervisors’ seat.
Fletcher is also cozy with Governor Gavin “Hair Gel” Newsom, and followed in his footsteps in enacting stupid and draconian COVID policies. Like the one in August of 2020, where he was requiring restaurants that reopened to indoor operations to keep a registry of guests: their names and phone numbers.
Privacy much?!
Supervisor @NathanFletcher describes the requirement for San Diego County businesses.
Business reopening indoor operation must keep a registry of their guests names and phone numbers.
Full Interview: https://t.co/PxoWrgTRnp pic.twitter.com/ORNDccE4nQ
— KUSI News (@KUSINews) August 31, 2020
When RedState last peeked in on the Fletchers, it was to report on their convenient profiteering off the pandemic, buying stock in companies whose profits skyrocketed because of COVID. Nathan Fletcher also took advantage of behested payments, a particular form of California grift, that allowed the purchase of a vacation home, and the enjoyment of “Hollywood” perks.
Based on a simple review of news coverage, Board meeting minutes, and press materials distributed by Fletcher’s office, we determined that Nathan Fletcher backed some of the most extreme views and policies on Covid-19 lockdowns in the country.
That’s putting it mildly. Next to Governor Gavin Newsom, Fletcher put the “Idiot” in CoVIdiot. Since mid-2020, when San Diegans and other Californians began to push back on the lockdowns and closure of small businesses, both Fletcher and Gonzalez Fletcher doubled down on their insistence that lockdowns were necessary.
After the first major protest, Fletcher complained on Twitter that San Diego police allowed hundreds of protesters to violate the prohibition against public gatherings, since the sheriffs had issued citations to protesters who remained in their cars. His complaint was echoed by his wife, Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez-Fletcher, who on April 23 tweeted, “The push to ignore stay-at-home orders are a minority. And a death wish.” On May 3 she complained about supervisor Kristin Gaspar going on “a right wing radio station” and “calling [her husband] a dictator.”
They really are symbiotic, which makes me believe that something must be truly wrong for them to disrupt their clawing and climbing to greater power, and for Gonzalez-Fletcher to push him into rehab. One can wish Fletcher well in his recovery, while still demanding that he resign.
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