While Faulconer broods, Coronado mayor could take on Lawson-Remer

Kevin F. gets religion

While ex-San Diego Republican mayor Kevin Faulconer continues to brood about whether to run next year against his Democratic successor Todd Gloria, or for the District 3 San Diego County Supervisor seat currently held by Democrat Terra Lawson-Remer, another GOP rival has moved a step closer to taking on the latter. Two weeks ago, Coronado Mayor Richard Bailey took out official papers to run in the district, boundaries of which now include his city, the Coronado News has reported.

Both Faulconer and Bailey have been touting their anti-homelessness credentials, reflecting the results of a Republican-commissioned March poll by Competitive Edge Research showing that the issue tops the list of local worries, jumping from 22.1 percent a year ago this month to 29.8 percent in March. Of those polled, 34.5 said they were Democrats, 22.3 were Republicans, with 25.5 percent identifying as “Non-partisan/Minor party.” Non-registrants brought up the rear at 17.6 percent.

The Union-Tribune reported June 7 that another Competitive Edge poll, this one funded by the GOP-backed Lincoln Club and more tightly targeted on Faulconer and his prospects, was then in the works, with results unknown. According to the U-T account, the survey described the ex-mayor “as an educator and small-business owner.” But what does that really mean?

A recent post on the website of the Mintz law firm touting a June 22 appearance by Faulconer at its Business of Politics Forum sheds more light. Faulconer, a one-time star at the Porter Novelli PR outfit, “is currently strategic advisor at Collaborate for California and Visiting Fellow and Pepperdine University School of Public Policy.”

The school’s website says Faulconer was Visiting Professor for Community Leadership & Government Innovation for 2021. San Diego under Faulconer, “has earned awards ranging from its naming as a top ‘Digital City’ by the Center for Digital Government, to its top ranking as the American City most ‘Equipped to Innovate’ by Governing Institute, to its ‘Silver Certification’ as one of nation’s few ‘What Works Cities’ in the category of data transparency,” says the ex-mayor’s bio, avoiding any mention of the city’s homelessness plight and Hepatitis outbreak during his reign.

A January 2022 university news release said Faulconer’s professorship was being extended. “Faulconer continues to teach the graduate course, titled ‘Innovative Local Leadership,’ in the school’s State and Local Policy specialization,” according to the post. “He provides regular public lectures and consults on the development of coursework for the Master of Public Policy program and forthcoming online degree program.”

Added Faulconer in an accompanying statement: “Cities are where innovative policies are born. They are where we can experiment with new ideas and approaches to tackling the toughest issues of the day, like homelessness, housing affordability, and protecting our environment, and I look forward to working again with Pepperdine’s grad students as they represent our next generation of problem solvers.”

According to the institution’s website, it’s “one of America’s only graduate policy/politics programs based at a Christian university, and while we welcome students of all faiths and no faith background, we understand and teach the importance of faith in preparing ethical leaders, and the foundational significance religious liberty plays in sustaining our republic.” In October 2020, public policy school Dean Pete Peterson was forced to renounce a widely circulated a fundraising email attacking a newspaper series tying slavery to social problems of today.

“Here at the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy, we’re fighting back against the leftist indoctrination of students by educating future conservative public policymakers about the Constitution and what makes America great,” the email said. “The left is doubling down by pushing to make The New York Times’ radical ‘1619 Project’ a component of history curriculum at all levels of education in American schools. It’s a poisonous narrative, and one rooted in pure left-wing fantasy.”

Pepperdine’s public policy school also houses the Edwin Meese III Institute for Liberty and the American Project, named after the Ronald Reagan strategist, University of San Diego law professor, and onetime Attorney General who supervised Reagan’s anti-pornography campaign. Meese quit as AG in 1988 in the wake of a scathing report on his ethics by independent counsel James McKay. The document alleged Meese “‘willfully’ filed a false tax return and ‘probably’ violated conflict-of-interest laws,” per an August 1, 1988, Time magazine account, but did not recommend indicting him over the allegations. Meese, now 91, got the nation’s Medal of Freedom from then-President Donald Trump in October 2019.

Beer bust

San Diego Democrat Toni Atkins, pro Tem of the state Senate, picked up $35,000 on June 15 for California Works: Senator Toni Atkins Ballot Measure Committee from Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc, the outfit still coping with controversy over the its decision to retain the services of transgender TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney of San Diego to hawk its Bud Light beer brand.

“Sales of Bud Light have slumped since April, when Ms. Mulvaney posted an image on Instagram of a personalized can of Bud Light that the beer maker had sent her,” the British Broadcasting Corporation reported June 7. New ads, featuring “iconic American imagery including the U.S. flag and horses galloping across open country,” have been concocted by the Belgian multinational to counter the trend...

Termed-out Assembly Democrat Brian Maienschein, who says he wants to run for San Diego city attorney next year despite a lack of hands-on legal experience, continues to raise money for his Maienschein for Attorney General 2030 committee. Records show that on June 14, he picked up $5500 from the political action committee of the American College of Emergency Physicians. Two weeks ago, the San Diego city council, as requested by termed-out city attorney Mara Elliott, voted to pay the law firm of Aleshire & Wynder an initial $30,000 with a cap of $50,000 to judge Maienschein’s qualifications for city attorney. “This is unnecessary as it’s obvious I qualify,” he told the Union-Tribune in an email.

— Matt Potter

(@sdmattpotter)

The Reader offers $25 for news tips published in this column. Call our voice mail at 619-235-3000, ext. 440, or sandiegoreader.com/staff/matt-potter/contact/.