‘Win the Argument, and Then You Can Win the Vote’

An interview with Kevin Faulconer, the outgoing Republican mayor of San Diego.

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Democrats dominate California politics at both the state and national level. They have controlled both houses of the state legislature almost nonstop since 1970, and the state’s U.S. congressional delegation currently has 45 Democrats compared with seven Republicans. But in San Diego, one Republican has defied the state’s progressive tilt. Republican Kevin Faulconer won a special election to serve as San Diego’s mayor in 2014 and clinched a full term in 2016. He was prevented by term limits from running again this fall. Faulconer sat down with The Dispatch to discuss how he won as a Republican in a Democratic-leaning city, his potential bid for governor, his criticisms of California’s coronavirus response (and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s infamous dinner at French Laundry), what his conception of a “California Republican” is, and the challenges he thinks the Golden State needs to address. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

Sutton: You’ve come out pretty hard against Gavin Newson this past week. Can you talk me through your criticisms of the coronavirus response in California and specifically Gov. Newsom’s?

Faulconer: You know, Californians are hurting. There’s so much frustration over the shifting rules and the fact that the governor doesn’t follow his own rules—people are hurting, small businesses are hurting. And when you see that there’s rules for everybody except for the governor, I think people are just hitting a breaking point. Everybody’s doing their best to stay healthy, to stay safe. But when we see, for example, a curfew that just came out last week, it’s an arbitrary and hollow executive order, hurting more of California, but it’s not based on any science. And that’s a big problem. 

You know, I focused a lot on small businesses, on keeping everybody healthy and safe following the rules, but we’ve had literally businesses open and close five times in San Diego with this constant whipsaw and flip-flopping because of the color-coded system. You can’t stay in business that way and it’s getting impossible to do so.

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  1. Avatar photo
    Bayesian

    I'm a CA native, and resident all but two of my 62 years. I've lived in left-trending (from a pretty right baseline) coastal Orange County since 1993. Ex-Republican of the Ford/Bush41/Riordan (for those who remember him)/Whitman/Huntsman style.

    Faulconer probably has my vote, although I give Newsom some credit for trying to take on the development NIMBYs early in his tenure - that was an attempt to do the Right Thing which was pretty much guaranteed to cause him grief; a profile in moderate courage. I've been aware of Faulconer since he was on the SD city council representing Pacific Beach, which for my money he did a good job at. I think he has a fair chance of being the CA version of Bill Weld/Phil Scott, which would be more than fine with me. However, I am not sure that he (Faulconer) is willing to set his sights there, nor that the CA Republicans are willing to be realistic enough about their permanent minority status (compare the nearly toothless in the legislature MA Republicans) to accept that winning the Gov race will require a moderately serious (if not literal :) ) rejection of Trump and Trumpism.

    Possibly relevant datum to which James indirectly alluded: while the Republicans clawed back some of their 2018 losses, both Congressionally and downballot, in much of the state (most notably in Orange County, but also in parts of the Central Valley), they lost further ground in San Diego, both city and county. I'm not sure what that means :)

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  2. Avatar photo
    Lauren Thomas

    Very happy to see the pro-housing supply rhetoric from a Republican in CA :)

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  3. Ingenero.lux

    Glad to see this. Having recently lived for a number of years in the San Diego area, I really appreciated Mayor Faulconer - he did a good job for San Diego and was a good example of the types of Republicans who win in non red-state areas - heterodox, listening to the concerns of their communities, and applying conservative principles without being doctrinaire about them. We could use more like him.

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    David Link

    As a lifelong Californian who declines to state any party preference -- and one who has worked for elected officials in Sacramento of both parties -- I am hoping Mayor Faulconer is the sign of a new and invigorated Republican party here. It's easy to forget that California was a Republican state for nearly all of the 20th Century; we only had four Democrats in the Governor's office during that 100 year period, and two of them were named Brown. In fact, two of the most consequential presidents of the last half of the century were Californians, and both were Republicans. No California Democrat has ever been able to run a serious nationwide presidential campaign, something I think even Jerry Brown might have to agree with.

    The collapse of the state's GOP is a long story for another day, but its demise has left an open field for legislative Democrats, and they are swinging for the fences. Faulconer notes their legislative failures (many), but leaves out the fact that they were responsible for a number of the initiatives on this year's ballot, and were soundly defeated by the voters they are supposed to represent time after time -- and not just on Props. 15 and 22.

    Faulconer (so far) appears to be in the position to take advantage of the Democrats' lack of attention to their own voters. That would be a good thing for the state and our politics. The voters do not exist in a political monoculture, but our legislature is exactly that right now. We need a responsible opposition party that can acknowledge the cultural, political and economic diversity of the state's population. I wish Faulconer -- and other politicians of both parties or neither who have the courage to reject extreme ideology -- well.

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  5. Avatar photo
    Pierre Bezukhov

    Faulconer comes across as totally reasonable. I live in the Los Angeles area and my take on other whites is that they are as conservative as me but just hate Republicans as it's their nature to do so. Trump doesn't help reverse that, it should be noted. Given their concern for the environment, those adamantly against nuclear power and natural gas should explain how all the batteries in electric cars will get recharged if the state requires you drive one in the near future. Given the recent rolling blackouts after a short late summer heatwave, it's a good question.

    I'm well aware of the homeless issue. As an avid bicyclist, I often come across people sleeping in the middle of bike paths or setting up camp at the bike rack at McDonald's. Tbh, I'm not all that sympathetic and will quickly point out they are hogging shared space and that it's my turn. An ethical society should provide those in need with shelter and assistance in helping them obtain some kind of life. But don't let people takeover shared spaces. That's not kindness but neglect.

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    1. Scroop Moth

      Homelessness in California is connected with the economies of other parts of the country. Some people bring their financial insecurity with them to California and stay despite failure because it’s a better place to be homeless. What’s remarkable is the willingness of people to hang on to homes in the squalid inland sprawls instead of moving to Arkansas or some other state with lower costs and nicer surroundings (during some seasons, at least).

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  6. Jack Wright

    Really enjoying this and Tim's piece yesterday on CA figures. The Dispatch pieces on things happening in the West are refreshingly different.

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  7. Nathan

    The gymnastics he performed to side step any question regarding Trump and his Trumpkins was impressive. At some point, he is going to have to denounce him to have any chance of winning.

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    1. Avatar photo
      Mudskipper

      Yep. That is the problem that California Republicans have. The antics of the national Republican party drag them down. It's not just the Trump support: it is the vocal dislike of the urbanites and the "coastal elites", the denial of global warming and stripping of environmental protections, the anti-immigration stance, the reflexive anti-government stance, and the general tendency to conspiratorial thinking. I think fiscal conservatives and pragmatic moderates could make headway in California, but the baggage they have to drag along with them doesn't play well in California.

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        Scarlette Tarte

        Yeah, kinda hard to hear you are a "coastal elite" when you are a Republican in California.

        And Republicans in California do care about climate change. If Republicans were wise, they would understand that you can't put down parts of the country that you would like to win. Republicans have a shrinking base. Outside of Trumpkins, who are just in the party because Trump is (if he became a Democrat, they would too) Republicans are struggling to grow their base.

        Really dumb to cut off the people you could make common cause with on most issues.

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      2. Ingenero.lux

        In many places in California they have - just generally as independents or Democrats running on a different platform from other Democrats. And my experience with California Republicans was...mixed. You had sensible people like Faulconer next to some incredibly Trumpy types (even before Trump) and others who were the worst sort of country-club Republicans happy to use government to keep the “little people” out of their communities (not that that’s solely a Republican thing in California, but as a general YIMBY, it frustrated me to no end). Beautiful state, great people, fun culture, jaw-dropping prices and politics that confused me to no end.

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          David Chen

          If this were a strategy game, nobody would be allowed to spawn in California. The number of geographic advantages to the state is ludicrous. How it became so screwed up takes some real talent. I doubt Faulconer can do much against that tide even as governor, but I doubt he can make things any worse.

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          1. Ingenero.lux

            True enough. If it were anything close to reasonable (or my career wasn’t largely exiled from the state), we’d still be living there. From middle-class paradise to overpriced and mismanaged - someone’s going to write a good non-partisan book on the matter at some point, that may well become a text for how not to run things in the 2100s or so.

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    Pat Riot

    By any *national* standard Faulconer is a "Democrat". He's talking about paving streets and finding a place for the homeless, and not the culture wars, white grievance, or owning the libs.

    At the national level, both parties have necessarily moved to absolute loyalty in order to combat the other side doing the same. The question is, will that same effect wipe out politicians like Faulconer--will he get primarried? It will be an interesting test.

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    1. Avatar photo
      Bayesian

      Apologies for delay in responding. Please recall the CA's Washington-style top two system means that being primaried does not have the same effect here that it does in most states.

      Which is not to say that Faulconer might not suffer from a similar effect if he can't clear most of the field - Cox (2018 R nominee) has stated that he's running again and if he does not drop out and Faulconer stays in too, he (Cox) could pull enough of the OG CA Repubs to drop Faulconer out of the top two assuming there's a serious challenge to Newsom from the left.

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      Pierre Bezukhov

      What you're trying to say, which I disagree with, is that Faulconer thinks like a democrat. There is no need to capitalize or use quotes as you are referring to a general system of political thought in that context. Any big city California mayoral candidate will have to address the issue of homelessness (can't blow off the question when asked). Doing nothing while the homeless take over the sidewalks and the parks should not be a republican position. Throwing them in prison would be finding a place for the homeless, but that's not what Faulconer has in mind. I don't get how those marks around "national" modify it, tbh.

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      1. Avatar photo
        DougCLE

        FYI, asterisks (*) around a word are used for emphasis, in places where bold text is not an option. Sorry if you already know that; it just looked like you were asking.

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        David Chen

        Anyone who isn't radical will inevitably be assailed from both ends. Faulconer will get hit by the right for not parroting DT's fraud claims, and by the left for being too conservative. The difference is that today, the 'ends' have an outsized voice in each major party and the middle tends to be too apathetic or mealy mouthed about defending one another.

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    Paul Britton

    Glad to see that James was not "expendable" after all!

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      Aylene Wright

      That was my first thought as well! Glad that James doesn't seem perpetually scarred from his prior assignment after all!

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    Evan Donovan

    Great thoughts on COVID. I hope he runs for CA governor. That could help stem the tide of people leaving for less over-regulated states, perhaps.

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