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Leading Off:

• San Diego Mayor: You might remember a widely-circulated article from February about the California GOP’s decline, as best seen in their utter lack of a statewide bench… though in that piece, moderate young Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher was heavily touted as their one possible rising star. So what does it say about your party when your most highly-regarded up-and-comer just up and leaves?

Indeed, that’s exactly what just happened, with Fletcher bolting the GOP, becoming an independent and offering a bunch of Americans Elect-style nonsense about the failure of partisan politics. It got him the praise from the usual suspects you’d probably expect he was after (like David Brooks), but it may just be a canny play designed to help him in the San Diego mayoral race. This move lets Fletcher differentiate himself out of the clutter of other Republicans running (Carl DeMaio and Bonnie Dumanis), to hopefully win a spot in the top-two primary against Dem Bob Filner. (David Jarman)

Daily Kos