Politics Report: As Faulconer's Political Career Lays Dying

By Andrew Keatts and Scott Lewis, the Voice of San Diego

September 18, 2021

When former Mayor Kevin Faulconer entered the recall race, it seemed like a no-risk play.

Newsom, a Democratic governor in a heavily Democratic state, would probably prevail, but if he didn’t, Faulconer, as the leading Republican candidate, was well positioned to win in a familiar way: by being in the right place during atypical circumstances after the guy ahead of him self destructed. That’s how he became the SDSU president, a councilman and the mayor, as Liam Dillon reported for us back in 2013.

Now that the recall is wrapped, though, it doesn’t really seem like this was a no-risk gambit for Faulconer.

Instead, in his first introduction to voters outside of San Diego, he flopped.

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