Former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer says he wants a job on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors representing District 3, which spans from Point Loma to Carlsbad.
Faulconer left his job as mayor in 2020 and made a run for governor in 2021 during the special election to recall Gavin Newsom. Faulconer, a moderate Republican, has been a fixture on the San Diego political scene for more than two decades, first winning a special election for City Council in 2005 and then winning another special election in 2013 to become mayor. He says the growing number of homeless people in the county is what triggered him to seek elected office once again.
"The county needs to lead by example. There are dollars there, but not the political will to stand up the shelter system and the bridge shelters that work," Faulconer said.
During his tenure as mayor, Faulconer opened up several homeless and bridge shelters, but many of his critics say he waited too long to address the homelessness crisis, which ended up sparking a Hepatitis A outbreak. The outbreak, a result of unsanitary conditions in the encampments, resulted in 600 homeless people becoming sick and 20 dying.
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"A lot of hard lessons were learned after Hepatitis A, which is why I jumped in and said, 'I’m tired of arguing back and forth. We need dramatic action.' And it was then, we stood up our bridge shelters, created 1,000 shelter beds and provided the help that people needed to get off the street," Faulconer said.
Aside from homelessness, Faulconer said he wants to focus on building more housing and bolstering public safety in the county.
"I feel very strongly and passionately about the work that we did with the San Diego Police Department, the leadership position we took, the fact that I did not defund our police department while so many mayors across the state did," Faulconer said.
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The seat that Faulconer is vying for is currently held by Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer who has served on the board since 2021. She is the second Democrat to represent District 3, which has a voter registration of 40% Democrats, 28% Republicans and the rest independents.
Lawson-Remer responded to her new challenger in a statement to NBC 7 that said in part, "Kevin Faulconer was a complete failure as mayor ... Faulconer is a lifelong politician who has been running for office, any office, for 22 years. He has no moral compass, claiming to be a moderate but voting for Trump in 2020 and defending the vote even after the January 6, 2021 insurrection."
