Lee Fletcher

Infobox Person


image_size = 150px
name = Dewey Lee Fletcher
image_size =
caption = Lee Fletcher
birth_date = birth date and age|1966|4|29
birth_place = Monroe, Ouachita Parish, Louisiana, United States
death_date =
death_place =
occupation = Advertising executive; radio talk-show host
party=Republican candidate for the United States House of Representatives, 5th District, Louisiana, 2002
religion=Baptist
spouse=Single
footnotes=Fletcher's narrow defeat for the United States House of Representatives in 2002 was a reflection of infighting within the Louisiana Republican Party.

Dewey Lee Fletcher (born April 29, 1966) is a small business owner and a radio talk show host and blogger in Monroe, who was defeated by 974 votes in a 2002 race for the United States House of Representatives from the Fifth Congressional District in northeast Louisiana. A Republican, Fletcher lost to the Democrat Rodney Alexander of Quitman in Jackson Parish. Alexander prevailed with 86,718 votes to Fletcher's 85,744. In August 2004, Alexander switched his affiliation to Republican and still holds the congressional seat.

Lee Fletcher, as he is known, formed "The Fletcher Group", an advertising agency, which has been cited by the American Advertising Federation for a highlysuccessful statewide television campaign. Fletcher hosts the "Town Hall Show" [www.TownHallShow.com] , a political talk program on Talf FM known as 92.7 Fox Fm radio in Monroe.

Early years and education

Fletcher was born in Monroe and reared on a horse ranch and a cotton farm in Oak Grove, the seat of rural West Carroll Parish in northeast Louisiana by Dayton C. Brown (1913-1994) and Pat Brown, relatives of his mother. He graduated from Oak Grove High School in 1984 and still raises horses as a sideline in Oak Grove. Fletcher received his bachelor of science degree in agricultural education from Louisiana Tech University in Ruston in August 1989. He was the Tech student body president in 1988. He received a Master of Business Administration degree from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge in 2000. He is a member of the First Baptist Church of West Monroe.

Political background

As a youth, Fletcher campaigned for the election of Ronald W. Reagan for U.S. President. He worked in the first George Herbert Walker Bush administration and in the United States Department of Agriculture.

He is a graduate and former faculty member of the Republican National Committee Campaign Management College and its Leadership Institute Campaign School in Arlington, Virginia.

Fletcher rose to his political recognition as the young chief of staff for newly-elected U.S. Representative John Cooksey of Monroe in 1997. It was in the race to succeed Cooksey that Fletcher lost to Alexander. Fletcher first edged out former U.S. Representative Clyde C. Holloway of tiny Forest Hill in southern Rapides Parish for the general election berth against Alexander. Also in the running was then State Senator Robert J. Barham of Oak Ridge in Morehouse Parish.

Alexander led in the primary with 52,952 votes (29 percent). Fletcher followed with 45,278 (25 percent). Holloway polled 42,573 votes (23 percent), and Barham received 34,533 votes (19 percent). (Three others divided the remaining primary ballots.)

Holloway hence fell 2,705 votes short of entering the second round of balloting with Alexander. Though he is a longterm Republican, Holloway endorsed the then Democrat Alexander over his fellow conservative Fletcher. Holloway's decision was a reaction to the hard campaigning waged against him by Fletcher in the primary. Critics claim that Holloway was furious over the negative and anonymous automated phones calls against the Holloway campaign. Not only did Hollway refused to endorse the fellow Republican Fletcher, but most Republican activist groups in the 5th Congressional District also supported the then-Democrat Alexander in the general election. The final outcome seemed to indicate that Holloway's endorsement and the support of Republican activist groups contributed to Alexander's election.

In 2004, Congressman Rodney Alexander switched partys and became a Republican with widespread support among district Republican leaders.

In 2006, Alexander supported the appointment of Holloway to a high position in the United States Department of Agriculture. Holloway's appointment required the approval of President George W. Bush, who had supported Fletcher in the general election against Alexander. In a 2003 interview with James H. "Jim" Brown, the former Louisiana insurance commissioner, Fletcher said that he did not have "a problem" with Holloway despite the disappointment to both in the 2002 congressional race.

In 2007, Fletcher urged voters in the 32nd State Senate District to elect Neil Riser, the Republican businessman from Columbia, who defeated a Democrat for the seat vacated by term-limited incumbent Noble Ellington of Winnsboro, the seat of Franklin Parish.

In 2007, Fletcher was key in helping elect more Republicans to office. He worked on campaigns to elect conservatives including successful gubernatorial candidate, Bobby Jindal. Fletcher's firm worked in eight campaigns and was successful in seven of those with only one candidate winning a position in the runoff but not advancing to office because the candidate discontinued his campaign.

In 2008, Fletcher develops and launches an all new talk FM format station named 92.7 Fox FM, and hosts his own daily show, Townhall Show, on this regional talk station.

"Monroe News Star" article

The following article about the Fletcher campaign was published in the "Monroe News Star" on October 16, 2002. It is by the political and business reporter Greg Hilburn (a son of Louisiana Tech University Journalism Department chairman Wiley W. Hilburn).

(Edtor's note: This is the second in a series of profiles of candidates running for the 5th Congressional District seat in the Nov. 5 primary.)

Lee Fletcher is relentless.

He's been on the campaign trail for the 5th Congressional District seat since April 2001, at least six months before anyone else began campaigning seriously.

If someone tells him they're supporting an opponent, he simply won't accept it, aggressively lobbying the voter to change his or her mind. He's spent nearly $300,000 of his own money toward his campaign.

Last winter, Fletcher's supporters pressured him to take a weekend off because they feared he was near exhaustion.

"I'll outwork anyone running," said Fletcher, R-Monroe, former chief of staff for [then] U.S. Rep. John Cooksey.

Fletcher faces six other candidates in the Nov. 5 primary election. Cooksey is giving up the seat to run for the U.S. Senate.

One of his field representatives, Louisiana Tech University student Kirk Williamson, said the pace Fletcher sets is grueling.

"This has been a great experience for me, but he's ready to go at 6 (a.m.), and we sometimes don't stop until midnight - that's every day," Williamson said.

Fletcher, who describes himself as a conservative Republican, feels he's been preparing for this moment since he was a teenager at Oak Grove High School, where teachers James Welch and Jerry Dosher became his mentors.

Welch and Dosher are father figures for Fletcher, who was raised by his mother's relatives, Dayton and Pat Brown, after coming from a broken home.

"My teachers pushed me, and they had the ability to reach inside me," Fletcher said. "They even taught me public speaking, which was a great training ground for my future."

Dosher, now the West Carroll Parish superintendent of schools, said Fletcher was driven even then.

"He was tenacious," Dosher said. "If you gave him direction and purpose, he saw it through like a bulldog.

"As a teacher, I couldn't have asked for more, especially knowing he came from a troubled home before he was taken in by the Browns. Lee was just a real special kid."

Fletcher said his political path was set after meeting President Reagan in 1984 in Washington during a trip Fletcher made as the state president of the Future Farmers of America.

"President Reagan told us to turn around and look at the Capitol and then he said, 'Someone among you will work in that building someday,'" he said. "It was that moment that really crystallized in my mind what I was meant to do."

He later worked without pay as an appointee in the first Bush White House, then was district manager for U.S. Representative Jim McCrery, R-Shreveport, before joining Cooksey in 1996.

Fletcher said his experience, especially with Cooksey, has set a foundation for action.

"For thirty years, people had been talking about four-laning (U.S.) 165, but nobody got anything done," Fletcher said. "When (Cooksey) took office in 1997, we got it done as a team. U.S. 165 is being four-laned now, probably the biggest federal project in the history of the district other than Interstate 20."

He has two priority projects for northeastern Louisiana - building a fourth Ouachita River bridge in Ouachita Parish and building a new airport in Monroe, which would include a new airline highway connecting the airport with I-20.

"That is the kind of infrastructure that fuels economic development, and I'm the one who can get it done," Fletcher said. "I'm the only candidate talking about specifics."

Fletcher said he will protect Social Security "and make sure every penny that you pay in can only be paid back to you."

"The system is designed wrong if your Social Security number can't be used as an account number. That's your money, and you should not just get what you put in but a reasonable rate of return without risking it in the stock market."

Fletcher said Social Security will remain solvent if Congress will quit taking money from it to spend on other programs and if fraud and abuse is eliminated.

He also said funding for Social Security and other critical government programs can come from reducing foreign aid, especially to the countries who oppose the U.S.

"We can direct some of those billions and billions of dollars right back into the 5th District where it's needed," Fletcher said.

He believes all education expenses should be tax deductible and that top teachers should be recruited to rural areas in exchange for the government paying back those teachers' student loans.

Fletcher has taken a hard line against illegal immigration, raising eyebrows when he said all illegal aliens "should be sent back to their own countries marked COD."

He said illegal aliens are draining the government coffers by getting free education, medical care and even welfare and Social Security.

"If you drive through this district ,you'll see our own children and citizens who need help," Fletcher said. "And in this case, I have to believe in helping America first. We have a very good legal work program for aliens that I would support expanding for agricultural employment.

"But I don't believe illegal aliens are entitled to use the benefits that are intended for our own citizens."

References

*Contact: 318-323-2700; 321 North Second Street, Monroe 71201; Email: [e-mail]
*http://www.leefletcher.com/
*http://www.politicsla.com/profiles/lee_fletcher_011403.htm
*http://www.sos.louisiana.gov:8090/cgibin/?rqstyp=elcms2&rqsdta=110502
*http://ssdi.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi

*^ http://www.lanewslink.com/print.php?article=2740