San Diego City Wire

Former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer would be a disastrous choice as the Republican nominee for governor in 2022, according to a fellow San Diego politician.

Carl DeMaio, who served with Faulconer on the San Diego City Council, said Faulconer doesn’t stand for conservative principles and would not push for needed reform. But DeMaio, the founder and chairman of Reform California, said he is not surprised Faulconer is interested in the position. 

“It’s not like he seems to very employable in the private sector,” he told San Diego City Wire. “This is a guy that has always been either a lobbyist for a variety of interests or been in government for his entire life. He likes to call himself a PR executive but that was just a fancy name ... he just promoted various interests before government. Nothing wrong with that.”

Kevin Faulconer | Twitter

But that doesn’t make him qualified to serve as governor, in DeMaio’s view.

He said political consultants are trying to bolster Faulconer’s name recognition and cash in by making him a serious contender for the job. Faulconer, whom DeMaio said is more interested in the prestige, pay and high profile of being a politician than actually accomplishing something, is just looking for a new perch.

DeMaio said Faulconer would not supply the leadership the state needs, and not from a Republican perspective.

Faulconer, who left office in early December after more than six years as mayor of the state’s second-largest city, has said he is “seriously considering” a run for governor in 2022. 

Gov. Gavin Newsom, a former San Francisco mayor and lieutenant governor, defeated Rancho Santa Fe businessman John Cox 7.7 million votes to 4.7 million in 2018.

Newsom, a Democrat, has yet to say if he will seek a second term but is expected to do so. Cox has formed an exploratory committee and said he will run again; several other Republicans have expressed interest as well.

DeMaio said Faulconer was not a successful mayor. He says Faulconer raised taxes, left the city in a fiscal hole, saw water bills double from his time as a councilman until he left office as mayor, bungled the convention center expansion three times and expanded the size of government.

Faulconer pushed for an increase in hotel room taxes to fund the convention center project and pay for programs to benefit the homeless while funding road improvements. It needed the approval of two-thirds of the voters and narrowly failed.

He failed to retain the San Diego Chargers despite offering millions derived from tax increases in a time of economic uncertainty and $2 billion in subsidies to a billionaire NFL owner. DeMaio said that may have been a blessing in disguise, with taxpayers not being asked to prop up the team.

Faulconer also supported a “Draconian” climate action plan that will intrude on businesses and individuals, DeMaio said.

“Faulconer absolutely buys into the Green New Deal nonsense that government should greatly expand its role in our private lives in the name of climate change,” he said. “It will make San Diego one of the worst places to do business in the country. Does that sound like a Republican? No. That’s an AOC idea. It’s a half-sister to the Green New Deal.”

He said Faulconer is more personally ambitious than committed to Republican ideals. It showed, as he tried to get along to go along as mayor, and didn’t continue on a reform movement that had several achievements from 2006-12. An effort to clear up San Diego’s troubled pension plan was quietly “knifed” in back room deals, he said.

“It was a very disappointing tenure,” DeMaio said. “As mayor, he has no real accomplishment.”

He said Faulconer is trying to “con” small business owners and people on fixed incomes by posing as a conservative. 

“Kevin Faulconer would be worse than Meg Whitman and Arnold Schwarzenegger combined,” DeMaio said, referring to Whitman, the former eBay CEO who was the Republican candidate for governor in 2010 and Schwarzenegger, the bodybuilder and movie star who served as governor from 2003-2011.

If Faulconer is somehow elected — DeMaio said it would take a miracle — he would not provide conservative leadership.

“The liberal agenda will not be changed,” DeMaio said. “The liberal agenda would get a rubber stamp from a Republican who just wants to get along to go along.”

DeMaio said he has yet to endorse a candidate. He said a Republican can win, but the candidate would need to support legitimate reform to energize the base and drive voters to the polls.

“It’s going to take someone who is authentic and genuine and real,” DeMaio said. “And those are all things Kevin Faulconer is not.”

He said a non-politician who believes both parties have failed and serious reform is needed. That person can be elected as a Republican, DeMaio said.

He founded his organization in 2003 as a local effort targeting the financial crisis in the city. After he left the council in 2012, it evolved into Reform California.

The organization has played a leading role in more than two dozen ballot measures, was a strong advocate of the successful 2012 Proposition B pension reform initiative and drove the recall effort to remove state Sen. Josh Newman from office in 2017 after he cast the deciding vote on a gas and vehicle tax.

It was a major opponent of Proposition 15, a tax hike proposal that voters rejected in November.

In 2008, DeMaio was elected to the City Council, where he served with Faulconer. They were the only two Republicans on the council, but DeMaio said he never felt like Faulconer had his back. Instead, he found more support from some conservative Democrats.

When they were on the council, there were two Republicans and six Democrats. By targeting seats held by Democrats, the council reached a four-four balance.

It has now expanded to nine seats, with Democrats holding nine of them and a “token Republican” in office who makes no waves and just quietly goes along, in DeMaio’s views.

Thanks to Faulconer’s uninspired leadership, he said Democrats may soon hold all nine seats. DeMaio, 46, is more focused on state politics now.

After serving on the council, he ran for mayor in 2012 but lost. A bid for Congress in 2014 ended in a narrow defeat to Democratic Rep. Scott Peters, who represents the state’s 52nd Congressional District.

In 2020, DeMaio ran for the 50th Congressional District, but he finished third in the primary and did not qualify for the Nov. 3 election.

DeMaio has espoused his views as a radio talk show host and on podcasts. He said Republicans can compete in California, which last voted for a GOP presidential candidate in 1988, when George Herbert Walker Bush carried the state.

“I think we first have to show how we can make it in play at the state level, in state races and local races,” he said. “I think the real shame in California is that the Republican Party establishment is as much to blame as the Democrats for the state falling into such a blue territory.”

He said a grassroots movement must arise to nominate a candidate for governor and other offices that will “inspire the base, take up the fight and lead us out of the wilderness. That in no way can be Kevin Faulconer.”

Faulconer could not be reached for comment despite repeated efforts.