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Nathan Fletcher donor HNTB design for San Diego airport

Sempra’s choice

Now that Democrat Nathan Fletcher is resigning as a San Diego County supervisor due to the region’s latest elected official sex scandal, what will become of the million dollars or so amassed from special interest contributors to advance his now-defunct political career? That’s the question making the rounds of politicos keen to tap into Fletcher’s impressive stash.

The report of the Nathan Fletcher for Democratic Central Committee 2024, filed on January 30 and covering the second half of 2022, shows a balance of $34,038. Big givers included Teamsters Local 856 PAC of Sacramento, with $1000 on November 3. The committee took in a total $51,300 through the end of December. Fletcher dipped into the fund to celebrate his reelection as county supervisor on November 8, using it to pay a $3019 tab at downtown’s Westin Hotel and Resort for “Election Night Lodging for Candidate” and “Food & Beverages for Election Night.”

What will become of Nathan Fletcher’s war chest now that he’s quit the field?

A second fund, Fletcher’s committee for his now-abandoned 2024 state senate bid, closed out 2022 with $933,168.67 raised and $43,061.76 spent, per his January 30 disclosure filing. Donors included the California Life Sciences Association PAC ($9800, December 7) and Linda Katz, wife of wealthy county water district chairman Mel Katz ($4900, December 6). Katz himself kicked in $8000 on December 12, and his Manpower partner Phil Blair gave $4900 on December 19, bringing Blair’s 2022 pro-Fletcher total to $8000.

The same day, the political action committee of mega-public contractor HNTB Holdings of Kansas City, with local projects including the giant airport makeover, gave $9400. “HNTB was responsible for final civil and structural design services for the world’s first fully dynamic variable pricing on 20 miles of I-15,” notes a post on the firm’s website.

“The San Diego Association of Governments’ project constructed the express lanes in the median, widened the current two-lane facility to four lanes, and added a moveable barrier.” HNTB was also a key backer of a failed initiative qualification effort to raise taxes for more trolley and road construction.

Further, $5000 came in on December 21 from PPR Solutions of Poway, the lobbying shop run by Republican insider and ex-San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer’s close advisor Phil Rath. And Sempra Energy contributed $4900 on December 27.

George Pla, founder and CEO of Los Angeles-based Cordoba Corporation, another big public infrastructure contractor, gave $9800 the same day. Mutual fund wheeler dealer Jon Sundt of La Jolla, who founded Natural High, a non-profit foundation favoring anti-substance addiction rehabs of the type to which Fletcher reportedly has decamped, came up with $4900 on December 16, bringing Sundt’s yearly total for Fletcher to $9800...

Expected later this month: an audit of the way San Diego police handle “security of the City’s Body Worn Camera Usage.” But the public won’t be able to look. “The findings and recommendations will be published confidentially in accordance with Government Auditing Standard 6.63.,” says a recent report to the city council by City Auditor Andy Hanau.

Just raise it

The Toni Atkins for Lt. Governor 2026 committee continues to collect major cash for the Democrat Senate Pro Tem’s three-years-hence electoral effort, raking in $5500 from Oregon-based athletic shoemaker Nike on April 4. The company is the target of a lawsuit filed in Portland Federal court, “alleging widespread sex discrimination, harassment, and an $11,000-per-year gender pay gap,” per a January 18 account by The Oregonian.

A group of Oregon newspapers battled for years to unseal records in the case. Documents filed by plaintiffs “provide a vivid portrait of women frustrated by pay disparities, harassment, and what some described as a ‘bro’ culture, where advancement hinged on who you knew rather than your skills,” says the story. “The feeling that badly behaving men were protected was common, the records suggest. Certain employees (mostly male) are protected because of who they are and who their friends are regardless of the fact they are severe underperformers,” one woman said.

Toni Atkins knows that Nike is the goddess of victory.

“A frequent complaint was about a boy’s club culture and lewd and offensive behavior by male managers.” Responded defense lawyers: “Nike expressly denies such allegations and states that any such alleged conduct, if any: (1) was outside the course and scope of those employees’ employment; (2) was not condoned by Nike; and/or (3) was undertaken without the knowledge or consent of Nike.”

The same day Nike’s money rolled in, Republican Matthew R. Swanson, owner of Prospector LLC of Turlock, gave the Atkins fund $8100. Back in May 2016, ex-GOP state senator Tony Strickland paid $40,000 to the California Fair Political Practices Commission to settle campaign money laundering charges stemming from his failed 2010 state controller bid.

Strickland fat cats cited in the case included “Anxdrew Barth, a San Marino investment manager; Matthew Swanson, president of Associated Feed & Supply Co. in Turlock; and William Templeton, a Texas businessman in the oil and gas industry,” the V.C. Star reported. Evidence showed “that Strickland received a total of $65,000 in contributions from three donors through the Ventura County Republican Party and the Stanislaus County Republican Party,” according to the paper’s May 19, 2016, account. “Galena West, the commission’s chief of enforcement, said the commission is ‘pleased Mr. Strickland accepted responsibility for the violations. The maximum fine imposed sends a message that this type of activity will be aggressively prosecuted and will not be tolerated.’”

— Matt Potter

(@sdmattpotter)

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