Faulconer is just not the man of the hour

There is a huge difference between the job of mayor of San Diego and governor of the fifth-largest economy in the world. At the mayoral level, competency is primarily rooted in incrementally improving life for the city’s residents — “pothole repair plus,” so to speak — as evidenced by most of the electioneering in the recent mayoral campaign. The governor’s job is largely visionary, preparing the state’s residents for 20 years into the future and our role in the world, and making solid progress toward that vision. It’s the difference between being a manager at a company and a CEO.

Faulconer has been a competent mayor, with a few notable detours — the Ash Street and Chargers debacles and insufficient progress on the homeless situation and street repair. These are examples of spotty execution, which are the primary measures of a mayor. Faulconer’s leadership lacks vision, critical for the next California governor on climate change, systemic racism, income inequality, immigration, cost of living and a robust economy, to name a few. Enormous challenges that require an extremely high level of competence in creating and delivering a vision for California 2040 in the face of criticism, intense polarization and resistance.

Henry Kissinger said, “The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.” Don’t get us wrong, we think he has been a decent mayor — no big scandals, a good economy, a generally clean and orderly city. We would be content to have him stay on as mayor if he wasn’t terming out. But he doesn’t inspire at the level we need at the governor’s level in California.

We are in favor of a strong female or minority candidate that possesses the traits we have described above. Even more, we need to be led by someone who inspires us during the challenging and, yes, dark days ahead. He’s just not the man of the hour for us.