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As the recall effort against California Gov. Gavin Newsom heats up, former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer is hoping to accomplish what no Republican has since 2003: become governor of one of the lesser states. blues of the country.
“I believe Californians want a change,” Faulconer said. “Looking at reality, we all love our state, but what we’re seeing is jobs are leaking. Our state cannot do the essentials. “
Faulconer, who served as mayor from 2014 to 2020, announced his candidacy this week after months of attacks on Newsom for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. In an online video posted Monday, the 54-year-old moderate portrayed California as a failed state full of scandals and degraded quality of life. He said he was running “to make a difference, not to make promises”.
“We missed him,” Faulconer said of Newsom in the video. “I know we can clean up California.”
As of this week, volunteers have collected more than 1.4 million signatures statewide in support of Newsom’s recall. The campaign is due to collect 1.5 million signatures by mid-March to force an election, and it will need a surplus of signatures as some risk being disqualified during the certification process. State officials had checked 410,000 people by early January.
Fueled by an economic downturn during the coronavirus pandemic, Newsom critics say the governor has kept public schools closed for too long and has failed to fix the state’s unemployment benefit system, his homelessness record and a shortage of affordable housing.
According to a poll released Tuesday by the non-partisan California Public Policy Institute, 54% of Californians approve of Newsom’s professional performance, up from 65% in May.
What started as a conservative-led recall effort has garnered bipartisan support in recent months, with Democrats also criticizing Newsom for its shifting Covid-19 vaccine strategy and for allowing schools to remain closed. Now Faulconer promises a “comeback to California” if voters choose him over Newsom.
“The recall will take place,” said Thad Kousser, professor of political science at the University of California, San Diego. “It’s clear Republicans smell blood, and that’s the best way to return a blue state.”
Still, Kousser described Faulconer’s chances of beating Newsom as a “long shot.”
“The Republican Party [in California] is steadily declining and has really become politically irrelevant, ”he said. “You had a Republican party that clearly opposed itself to the diverse electorate in California.”
Faulconer sees himself as a different kind of preservative. Raised in Oxnard, a coastal town northwest of Los Angeles, Faulconer learned Spanish at an early age and stayed away from the anti-immigrant rhetoric that ultimately condemned another Republican, the former governor Pete Wilson.
Faulconer won two terms in a Democratic-majority city with a Democratic-majority council. As mayor of California’s second-largest city, with a population of 1.4 million, he helped reduce homelessness in San Diego, moving people living on the streets to the Convention Center in the city after a hepatitis A epidemic swept through the population. Her office’s efforts subsequently helped hundreds of homeless people find housing solutions, NBC San Diego reported.
“We have to say that it is unacceptable to allow people to live and die on our sidewalks,” Faulconer said. “I believe that individuals have a right to shelter.”
Despite some achievements in alleviating the city’s homelessness problem, Faulconer has come under fire for relying too heavily on law enforcement to sweep people off the streets. Police teams cleared sidewalks and cleared camps, and a new law banned sleeping in cars. Homeless people have been taken to temporary shelters, but housing costs remain high throughout the city.
Under his leadership, the Chargers football team moved to Los Angeles after 55 years. Faulconer said the decision was made by the team: “It was a done deal.”
Another likely challenge for Faulconer is his support for former President Donald Trump. He voted for Trump in 2020 after declaring four years earlier that “his divisive rhetoric is unacceptable,” the Los Angeles Times reported.
Since November, Faulconer has ruled out any potential handicap his voting record could pose in a state that overwhelmingly voted for President Joe Biden.
“We have our own unique brand,” he said of conservatives in California. “I see myself as a Californian Republican who is financially strong, environmentally conscious, builds bridges and gets results.”
Faulconer is one of many Republicans who have shown interest in overthrowing Newsom. Businessman John Cox is considering a race against the governor if the recall effort is successful. It would be the second time Cox has faced Newsom – he lost to the current governor in 2018.
Faulconer said that even if he failed to beat Newsom in a special election, he would run for governor again in 2022.
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