“A broad coalition of San Diegans including former Mayor Faulconer and respected community leaders are collaborating on a citizens initiative that will require the City to provide adequate shelter for homeless individuals so we can make our streets healthier and safer,” said longtime Faulconer political intimate Aimee Faucett in a statement to the Voice of San Diego July 9.

Fungible exchange

A political action committee tied to Republican ex-San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer, largely funded by a Sacramento-based business lobbying group, has closed up shop, distributing its remaining cash to the county GOP. Officially known as the San Diego Safe Shelters and Clean Streets Act Sponsored by the California Business Roundtable Issues PAC, the committee was set up to stage a now-shelved initiative to push Faulconer’s anti-homelessness agenda. “A broad coalition of San Diegans including former Mayor Faulconer and respected community leaders are collaborating on a citizens initiative that will require the City to provide adequate shelter for homeless individuals so we can make our streets healthier and safer,” said the group’s honcho, longtime Faulconer political intimate Aimee Faucett in a statement to the Voice of San Diego July 9. The PAC had been registered with the city clerk Mach 10. “Up until a couple of years ago, San Diego had become one of the only major regions in California where homelessness was decreasing. In fact, the people of Sacramento were encouraged by San Diego’s progress, and have gained the support of their community and Democratic mayor to place a measure inspired by some of San Diego’s actions on their local ballot. It’s time to do the same in San Diego by taking solutions proven to reduce homelessness and making them into law. We look forward to sharing more updates in the future.”

Faulconer’s next target: Terra Lawson-Remer’s Supervisor seat.

Despite Faucett’s boasts of solid San Diego backing for the proposed ballot measure, most of the money behind the effort came from the California Business Roundtable, the statewide business lobbying group that kicked in a total of $75,000 during May and June, per disclosure filings with the city clerk’s office. Faulconer, who once hoped to challenge incumbent San Diego mayoral Democrat Todd Gloria, has now set his eyes on the county supervisorial seat of Democrat Terra Lawson-Remer. The Safe Streets initiative committee went quiet until November 6, when the group filed a termination statement, reporting that its remaining cash hoard of $25,500 was turned over to the San Diego County Republican Party.

Meanwhile, on July 12, unnamed Faulconer backers formed The Homelessness Crisis Response Committee Supporting Kevin Faulconer for Supervisor, 2024, listing his ex-city council ally, fellow Republican Chris Cate, as principal officer. In addition to his other political activities, Cate is on the board of the non-profit Voice of San Diego, per the group’s website. “Chris Cate is the founder of 3MC Strategies, a San Diego firm specializing in public policy, public affairs, and business development. Chris founded the firm following his 8 years of service on the San Diego City Council representing District 6,” according to the Voice. The registered agent for 3MC, according to state records, is Guillermo Cabrera, chair of the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority, whose New San Diego political committee was warned by the California Political Fair Practices Commission in January not to repeat “advertisement disclosure provisions’ failures to the group made in its successful hit piece battle against 2022 city council hopeful Lori Saldana, pitted against Democratic San Diego city councilwoman Jen Campbell.

David Malcolm, on board with fellow board member Faulconer.

In addition to the Cate-run pro-Faulconer group, on July 24, the GOP-supported San Diego Lincoln Club, known for sending hit-piece barrages against its opponents, registered a pro-Faulconer campaign committee, the Neighborhood Action Council Supporting Kevin Faulconer for Supervisor 2024, sponsored by The Lincoln Club Business League. That group, according to its website, “advocates for San Diego’s taxpayers, businesses, and residents who believe in lower taxes, less regulation, and a better quality of life.” League board members include its PAC co-chair, David Malcolm, an ex-member of the San Diego Unified Port District Board of Commissioners who was sentenced to 80 days of work furlough after copping a plea to felony conflict-of-interest charges in 2003. The board also includes Faulconer himself, as well as ex-GOP Assemblyman Martin Garrick, famous for his late-night Sacramento encounter with the California Highway Patrol that led to his arrest for drunk driving in 2011.

Capitalist plot

Special interest fundraising continues to chug along for state Senate Democrat Toni Atkins in the 2026 race for California Lieutenant Governor. On November 15, consumer lender Encore Capital came up with $9100. Encore has been a repeated target of state and federal regulators over its aggressive debt collection tactics. “Encore buys pools of written-off consumer debt at steep discounts. It then tries to collect from borrowers,” reported the Union-Tribune in September 2020. “The company had more than $1 billion in revenue last year and net income of $75 million.” A lawsuit filed that month by the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau alleged, “Encore tried to collect debts after the statute of limitations had expired, including sending letters that didn’t spell out to consumers that because of the age of their debt, they could not be sued.” The agency also charged that Encore “sued more than 100 consumers after the statute of limitations had expired for collecting their debt. It sent 425,000 collection letters to old accounts without including language informing consumers that they faced no threat of legal action.” A month later, Encore settled the case, agreeing to pay $79,308.81 in “consumer redress” and a $15 million civil money penalty. “For a very small percentage of transactions, our execution was not immediately perfect,” Greg Call, Encore’s general counsel and chief administrative officer, said in a statement cited by the U-T. “We have long since refined our processes, making the necessary changes to improve our operations, and provided appropriate relief for impacted accounts over three years ago.”

— Matt Potter

(@sdmattpotter)

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