Republican Kevin Faulconer boasted that he had voted for Trump in 2020, and he defended Trump even after the January 6 insurrection, saying Trump was the right choice.
"Trump’s parting gift to Gavin Newsom is undermining his strongest challenger” Los Angeles Times, 8 Jan. 2021,
Kevin Faulconer even went to Washington to personally thank Trump for his policies . Now MAGA Republicans, including a Trump delegate and major Trump contributor, are bankrolling Faulconer’s campaign for Supervisor.
Fox News. "Full Interview: Trump Speaks with Sean Hannity | January 10, 2020." YouTube, 10 Jan. 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jCHVsOT8nQ. Accessed at minute 37.
Kevin Faulconer: “He’s just not very good at getting things done.”
Republican Kevin Faulconer was perhaps the worst Mayor in San Diego's history. The San Diego Union-Tribune endorsed Faulconer when he ran in 2016. But just 2 years later, after an administration rocked by repeated scandal and ineptitude, the Union-Tribune gave Faulconer a grade of D-MINUS as Mayor and said “He’s just not very good at getting the job done.”
Editorial Board. "San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s Grade: D for Disappointment." San Diego Union-Tribune, 10 Aug. 2018, https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2018/08/10/san-diego-mayor-kevin-faulconers-grade-d-for-disappointment/.
What did Kevin Faulconer screw up as Mayor?
What didn’t he!
Perhaps the biggest disaster was 101 Ash Street. Kevin Faulconer was responsible for the 101 Ash Street fiasco -- one of the biggest scandals in San Diego history. 101 Ash Street cost taxpayers 264 million dollars, while Faulconer’s campaign donors pocketed 15 million dollars on the deal.
An independent audit found Faulconer bought the building without an inspection, misrepresented facts, withheld information that the property was contaminated by asbestos, and then destroyed documents to prevent public oversight.
Keatts, Andrew. "Real Estate Debacles Loomed Large on Faulconer’s Watch." Voice of San Diego, 9 Dec. 2020, https://voiceofsandiego.org/2020/12/09/real-estate-debacles-loomed-large-on-faulconers-watch/.
City of San Diego. Building Acquisition Process for City of San Diego Properties. January 2022. https://www.sandiego.gov/sites/default/files/22-002_building_acquisition_process.pdf, Page 53.
The Union-Tribune called Faulconer’s 101 Ash Street deal “an act of staggering stupidity.”
But that was just one of a number of self-serving real estate deals that Faulconer screwed up. He negotiated the city’s $7 million purchase of a failed skydiving center, basically a bunch of giant wind tunnels owned by a campaign contributor, for use as a homeless service center. Of course, it couldn’t be used and the taxpayer money was flushed down the toilet.
Faulconer even lost the Chargers due to his ineptitude.
Keatts, Andrew. "Real Estate Debacles Loomed Large on Faulconer’s Watch." Voice of San Diego, 9 Dec. 2020, https://voiceofsandiego.org/2020/12/09/real-estate-debacles-loomed-large-on-faulconers-watch/.
As a City Council member and two-term Mayor of San Diego, Kevin Faulconer also allowed the homelessness crisis to spiral totally out of control on his watch. The number of people sleeping on the street more than doubled, he refused to invest in mental health treatment, he built zero shelter beds to prevent homelessness, and he ignored a Hepatitis A outbreak that resulted in hundreds of people getting sick and dozens dying. He did absolutely nothing for years until conditions in homeless encampments resulted in the Hepatitis outbreak, killing and sickening scores of people.,
Paul Sisson. “Grand Jury Faults Local Response to San Diego's Hepatitis Crisis." San Diego Union-Tribune, 17 May 2018, https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2018/05/17/grand-jury-faults-local-response-to-san-diegos-hepatitis-crisis/.
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. (2008, July). The Third Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress. Appendix C-3: Continuum of Care Point-in-Time Homeless Counts, 2006. https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/3rdHomelessAssessmentReport.pdf
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. (2020). 2020 AHAR: Part 1 - PIT Estimates of Homelessness in the U.S.: 2007-2020 PIT Estimates by CoC. https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/ahar/2020-ahar-part-1-pit-estimates-of-homelessness-in-the-us.html
Kevin Faulconer is not only incompetent, he is absent.
As Mayor, Kevin Faulconer made more than $160,000 a year but missed 84% of the SANDAG meetings that allocated billions of dollars for traffic, transit, and road projects, skipping hundreds of vital votes. His record on the MTS Board is even worse - attending just 3% of meetings between 2018 and 2020 while he prepared to run for Governor.
Bowen, Andrew. "San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s SANDAG Attendance." KPBS, 5 May 2016, https://www.kpbs.org/news/politics/2016/05/05/san-diego-mayor-kevin-faulconer-sandag-attendance.
San Diego Metropolitan Transit System. "Board Meetings." https://www.sdmts.com/about/meetings-and-agendas/board-meetings.
Republican Kevin Faulconer is also completely out of step with San Diego County. Kevin Faulconer is endorsed by the San Diego Gun Owners Association because he opposes a ban on assault weapons and does not support common sense gun safety legislation, like safe storage laws.
"2024 Voter Guide." San Diego County Gun Owners, 2024, https://sandiegocountygunowners. com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/SDCGO_VoterGuide_24_9.jpg.
Phillips, Sandra. "Alvarez Questions Faulconer’s Stance on Assault Weapons." Fox 5 San Diego, 2024, https://fox5sandiego.com/news/alvarez-questions-faulconers-stance-on-assault-weapons/.
Smolens, Michael. "Faulconer Tried to Sidestep Gun Storage Law." San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 Sept. 2019, https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2019/09/13/faulconer-tried-to-sidestep-gun-storage-law/.
Lobbyist and career politician Kevin Faulconer is part of a corrupt, revolving-door political system. For more than 25 years, Faulconer bounced between lobbying for special interests and public office, and for decades developers have spent millions funding Kevin Faulconer’s campaigns — in return, he approves projects that create more sprawl, congestion, and overcrowding.
These developers are now spending hundreds of thousands more to get him on the County Board of Supervisors where Faulconer will give them special treatment and approve their sprawl development projects and high-rise apartments in neighborhoods next to single-family homes, destroying our quality of life and the character of our communities.
Walker, Mark. "Faulconer Pier Party Cost Almost $150K." San Diego Union-Tribune, 2 Apr. 2014, https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2014/04/02/faulconer-pier-party-cost-almost-150k/.
"Manchester Puts Money in Race for Mayor." San Diego Reader, 8 Feb. 2014, https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2014/feb/08/ticker-manchester-puts-money-race-mayor/.
Republican Kevin Faulconer is a lifelong politician with no principles. In 2016 when he was running for Mayor, a nonpartisan office, and needed Democratic votes, he said he was a “moderate” and that he would “never vote for Donald Trump.” But when he was running for Governor as a Republican in 2021, Faulconer proudly proclaimed that he had voted for Trump in 2020, and he continued to defend Trump even after the January 6 insurrection, saying it was the right choice. Kevin Faulconer even went to Washington to personally thank Trump for his policies. MAGA Republicans, including a Trump delegate and major Trump contributor, are bankrolling Faulconer’s current campaign for Supervisor.