Thread by @daveweigel

Settled in for tonight’s Kevin-centric #CArecall debate: Kevin Faulconer (R), Kevin Kiley (R), and John Cox (R).

Larry Elder opted not to attend and Dem Kevin Paffrath won’t share the stage til next week. More in the newsletter! washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/…

Debate's kicking off. Elder and Caitlyn Jenner were invited, as was Newsom. Newsom and Elder passed, Jenner didn't respond.

Faulconer says he's the one candidate who can appeal to all Californians (ie not just Rs), "compassionately reduced homelessness in San Diego" and "stood up to the defund the police movement and won."

Kiley: I don't take any money from special interests.

Cox starts to speak, is interrupted by a process server who tosses documents at him and is ushered out. #CArecall

Cox touts Arizona's Doug Ducey as the model of a successful governor and takes a whack at Elder and the Kevins. "We don't need more politicians. We don't need more media personalities who don't show up."

Question One: Are you vaccinated?

Kiley: I am, and Newsom "played politics with the vaccine" and should have prioritized seniors.

Cox: I'm vaccinated, but why have so many people declined? They've lost trust in government.

We are at two French Laundry references in first 4 min

Faulconer: I'm vaccinated, but "it's not about mandates, it's about education... that's the sole way we get over this."

He says the politics should be taken out of it, as Newsom runs ads blasting Elder for opposing vaccine mandates.

Would the candidates roll back Newsom vax mandates?

Cox: "The mandates are counterproductive... I think it's violates our belief that we should be free to know what we put in our bodies."

Faulconer: "We're not going to mandate our way out of covid-19."

Both would roll back

Kiley says he'd roll them back too. "The governor is looking for a campaign issue," he says, pointing out that other states haven't done this.

"We're a country that believes in minority rights," said Kiley, and says how we treat people who refuse vaccine will be noticed by people who are still making up their minds.

Would the candidates allow localities to impose mask mandates?

Faulconer: Yes.

Kiley: "I'd do whatever I could to ensure this choice is in the hands of parents." Thinks ending the covid emergency would prevent localities from imposing mandates anyway.

Cox says he's okay with local control but the science isn't solid on mask mandates in schools. "More children have died of the flu than have died of covid."

How would the candidates work with the Dem supermajority? Kiley says he knows how to work in Sacramento (he's the only candidate from the legislature) and Dems will work with him bc they'd be vulnerable to same voter anger as Newsom.

Faulconer emphasizes his anti-homelessness initiatives and how he had to work with a majority-Dem council. "I picked the locations myself" for shelters, he says. "We prohibited camping on the street. Why? Because we care about people."

Faulconer basically has a lane to himself as the not-very-ideological Republican candidate focused on housing density and fixing homelessness.

Kiley knocks Newsom for only building 20% of the new housing he promised. "He's way, woefully short," says Cox. "If the only building you can do is $500k a unit, it's going to price people out."

On forest fires, Kiley says bureaucracy is hamstringing efforts to manage them, and so does Cox, repeating that the state has "too many politicians and media personalities."

"We ought to be developing our natural gas industry," he says, to "remove demand for coal in China."

"We have a governor who actually cut funding for CalFire preparedness," Faulconer says. "We need to put our state on a war footing."

Would they prevent development in fire zones? No, says Cox, we just need better forest management and fire-fighting. "We've got tons of land that people can build on. Certainly, the wildfire interface needs to be respected."

Kiley the climate fund is being squandered when it should be used to fight fires. "The biggest line item is high-speed rail funding. The biggest line item should be forest fire funding."

On energy, Cox calls for developing fossil fuel resources and not scrapping nuclear plants, saying technology advances are making energy safer. "Nuclear fusion is coming very very soon."

Kevin Faulconer now going after Larry Elder's quotes on women in workforce, including his suggestion that working mothers can't be as "dedicated" to work as others. "That's bullshit and we ought to call it that."

Newsom's been hammering Elder with this.

Faulconer now hitting last year's unemployment fraud debacle, a Newsom weakness that's gotten lost in the buzzy recall campaign. "We still have a million Californians who can't get their unemployment checks. That's scandalous."

Kiley picks up the rebound, pointing out that the unemployment system is so bad that Biden used one of his constituents as a horror story about not getting her EDD check.

Some context: Faulconer was mayor of San Diego and planning a 2022 gov run as the pragmatic GOP candidate. Has gotten somewhat lost in the recall shuffle, especially once Elder jumped in and surged to top thanks to pundit career name ID.

(She got the check after Kiley intervened, he says.)

Kiley jokes that voters will have to sift through the Kevins to find him on the ballot. Cox says he's got the shortest name on the ballot now that Ose dropped out.