Former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer has announced his candidacy for the county’s Third District, setting up a showdown with sitting supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer.
District 3 encompasses San Diego’s coastal areas, including the cities of Carlsbad, Encinitas, Rancho Santa Fe, Solana Beach and Del Mar.
Faulconer served as mayor of San Diego from 2014 to 2020. He ran an unsuccessful campaign for California governor in 2021.
Faulconer, a Republican, and Lawson-Remer, a Democrat, have different views on the best way forward for San Diego. If Faulconer were to win this seat, it would flip the balance of power on the board.
Although the board of supervisors is a nonpartisan body, supervisors' ideological makeup heavily influences the direction of county policy. Until 2020, San Diego County was governed by a conservative majority. Since then, the county has faced growing challenges, including an explosion in the number of unhoused people. Faulconer is trying to capitalize on that.
“As Mayor of San Diego, I delivered real results on some of the toughest issues facing San Diego and made significant progress in reducing homelessness, even bucking the statewide trend,” he said in his announcement. “Now, homelessness continues to hit new records and housing is unaffordable. Our County government must do better.”
Lawson-Remer shot back at Faulconer in an interview with KUSI, calling him “a failure as mayor,” who “drove our city into a ditch.”
This ought to be one interesting election.