Letter: What Is Fletcher Passionate About?

Unfortunately Mr. Katz I can’t join you in voting for Nathan Fletcher (“Progressive Entrepreneur for Fletcher“). But thanks for asking. Maybe we can vote in unison another time.

I don’t find Fletcher fetching. He strikes me as too unsure of who he is or what he stands for other than his own ambition, glibness and good looks. I’m concerned he is shallow and phony.

He also seems too inexperienced, even as he enters mid-life, to actually perform the job of mayor, considering it requires managing a 10,000 employee, $3.2 billion enterprise. I don’t see anything in his resume that suggests he has the know-how to function as chief executive of such a large project. And I wonder, technical knowledge aside, if even the Qualcomm executives supporting his candidacy would hire him to run a multi-billion-dollar division of their corporation.

But as you are acquainted with him, and I am not, please tell him that if he wants my vote he should spend several years building his resume in San Diego, and not elsewhere, doing tangible things, motivated by genuine need, which amply demonstrate his organic interest in the well-being of wide swaths of the people who live here.

I’m not talking about “job creation” through “legislation” or cutting ribbons or grandstanding for sex offender laws. Nor am I talking about voicing words like “innovation” and “independent.” This is easy. I’m talking about actually doing something in direct, immediate, real and sustained ways.

I don’t care what he does. He could feed the homeless or build a new stadium. I need evidence from Fletcher that he is a politician because it enables him to further some moral or ethical beliefs and not simply because the behavior comes easy and the job yields power and wealth.

All three of his competitors have careers rooted in deep beliefs. All three have overcome handicaps and hurdles. All three seem more comfortable in their shoes than Fletcher. Their passions are also clear: Carl DeMaio cuts costs, Bonnie Dumanis metes out justice, Bob Filner protects the powerless.

Fletcher? I draw a blank.

Bob Stein lives in University City.

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