On March 28, the news broke that California Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher is changing his registration from “Republican” to “independent”. He is not running for re-election. Instead, he is running for the non-partisan post of Mayor of San Diego. He has been one of the four whips of the California Republican Assembly caucus.

Recently the San Diego Republican Party endorsed someone else for Mayor of San Diego. The election for Mayor is June 5, 2012, and if no one gets at least 50%, a run-off will be held in November. The Mayoral race has four candidates. Besides Fletcher, one is a Democrat and two are Republicans.

The last California independent legislator was Assemblyman Juan Arambula, of Fresno, who switched from the Democratic Party to independent status in June 2009. He did not run for re-election in 2010 because he was term-limited. Before that, the last independent in the California legislature was Audie Bock, who switched from being a Green, to being an independent, in late 1999. The last person actually elected as an independent to the California legislature was Quentin Kopp, re-elected as an independent in 1990 and 1994.