Former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer has made it official, declaring his candidacy for governor of California.
The centrist Republican plans to run in next year’s election, challenging Democratic incumbent Gov. Gavin Newsom. He'll also run in this year’s election, provided the recall qualifies for the ballot.
Faulconer's announcement comes as the governor’s approval rating plummets.
A new Berkeley IGS poll shows that for the first time, more Californians disapprove of Gov. Newsom's performance than approve and only 31 percent approve of how he’s handling the coronavirus pandemic.
"I think it’s time for California comeback," Faulconer told KCBS Radio’s "The State of California" on Tuesday. "When I say comeback, I mean a state that’s going to get back on track on issues that matter most to Californians."
The former mayor of San Diego has been a harsh critic of the governor’s leadership during the crisis, saying guidelines and reasoning "seems to change almost monthly in California."
"I’ve been pretty outspoken about that," he said. "It’s incredibly important to have the public’s trust and support, and it needs to be based on science."
"You have to have transparency. You have to have openness," he added.
Faulconer also hammered the governor on vaccine distribution, which has lagged behind other, much smaller states in the early days of 2021. "The biggest issue is that our state wasn’t prepared. It was almost as if the vaccine showed up and folks said ‘Okay, how are we going to distribute this?’"
Distribution in California has been confusing, at best.
Just last week, the state announced Blue Shield as a third-party partner to assist in distribution and supply chain issues. "We are the most innovative, creative state in the nation," Faulconer said. "We’re proud of that. We should have been absolutely…ready to go. But yet, we weren’t."
California has not elected a Republican to statewide office since 2006, when then-actor Arnold Schwarzenegger won the governorship. To repeat that success, Faulconer will need to break through in a GOP field that includes John Cox, the candidate Newsom easily defeated in 2018.
"I’ve had to do that before. I’m a proud Republican who got elected in a majority Democratic city in San Diego. I got elected, then reelected."
Faulconer was first elected mayor of San Diego in 2014.
"I think most folks aren’t worried about partisanship," he said. "What they’re worried about is leadership." As for his past support of President Donald Trump, Faulconer said "you’re always going to have different views and different opinions, and that’s okay."
Meanwhile, a political spokesperson for Gov. Newsom told POLITICO on Monday: "It's appropriate that (Faulconer) picked Groundhog Day to announce once again that he's running. He just keeps doing this at the start of each month, waiting vainly for people to pay attention."
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