The holiday stand-down in the San Diego mayoral race ended Thursday when the trade group for Southern California's life-sciences industry endorsed San Diego City Councilman Kevin Faulconer.
"It's clear that Kevin Faulconer has the proven experience to lead City Hall and understands how to create more good-paying jobs in the life sciences so more San Diegans can succeed," said Joe Panetta, president and CEO of Biocom.
"At a time that other regions make regular trips to San Diego to try to recruit local companies to relocate, Biocom believes it is critical that the city of San Diego has a mayor who understands the importance of the life sciences and is committed to support its continued growth," Panetta said.
Biocom previously backed former Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, who finished third in the Nov. 19 special election. Faulconer won the most votes then, but did not get an outright majority, forcing him into a Feb. 11 runoff with City Council colleague David Alvarez.
The winner will finish the nearly three years remaining in the term of Bob Filner, who stepped down in disgrace Aug. 30.
Neither Faulconer nor Alvarez have held major public events or announced endorsements in the past couple of weeks, but the campaign is expected to kick into a higher gear now that the calendar has flipped to 2014.
"I'm excited to kick off the final stretch of the campaign with such incredible momentum and support from former supporters of Nathan Fletcher," Faulconer said. "The choice between me and my opponent couldn't be clearer, and I'm proud an organization that supports tens of thousands of high-quality San Diego jobs chose the candidate with the most experience to manage our city and lead our region forward."
Biocom says it represents more than 600 companies that provide nearly 60,000 jobs in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, diagnostic, medical device, connected health, agriculture and bio-renewable energy industries.
