Mayor Richard Bailey has officially pulled the plug to run for San Diego County supervisor.
And in terms of being involved in elected office, Bailey says “never say never,” but politics in Coronado is not on his radar past 2024, when his term ends.
Instead the one-time rising star in the Republican Party told The Coronado News in an exclusive interview that he plans to “travel and go climb mountains.”
I carefully considered where I could make the biggest impact and decided that finishing out my last year and a half as mayor undistracted by the campaign was the best course of action.”
-Mayor Richard Bailey.
“I carefully considered where I could make the biggest impact and decided that finishing out my last year and a half as mayor undistracted by the campaign was the best course of action,” Bailey told The Coronado News.
He also is working on a jetski and boat rental business in Coronado and North Lake Tahoe, a small software startup and is an investor in a new game called Board Ball; similar to Spike Ball but played with a volleyball.
Had planned run against Lawson-Remer
Currently, Democrat Terra Lawson-Remer, who has been a county supervisor since 2020, represents San Diego County’s third district. She had ousted Republican incumbent Kristin Gaspar to give Democrats a majority on the five-member board.
Bailey had filed papers this summer to explore the possibility of running for the seat, and he made national headlines in March after appearing on FOX News and KUSI to discuss finding answers to solve homelessness.
He also partnered with NBA Legend and San Diego resident Bill Walton to deal with homelessness, and Bailey has continued his fight to clean Coronado’s polluted beaches from the Tijuana sewage crisis.
Bailey and other Republicans thought they had a chance to unseat Lawson-Remer because her district had been redrawn to run along more GOP-friendly Carlsbad to Coronado.
However, with the recent announcement of San Diego’s former Mayor Kevin Faulconer running for county supervisor, Bailey feels that Coronado would be better served with him focusing on being their mayor.
End of 2024 marks a dozen years in office
By the end of his term in 2024, Bailey will have completed eight years as Coronado’s mayor and 12 total years of serving the city with four on the City Council.
And even though he doesn’t have plans for county supervisor, Bailey is planning his life post-politics in the private sector…and in the mountains.
He has three peaks planned for the next year and a half, and to focus on a few small businesses.
“I have a couple of businesses I’m working on right now, and I’m looking forward to seeing those grow, and then taking on some athletic adventures around the world,” Bailey says.
More mountaineering on horizon
Other than being the youngest mayor to serve Coronado, Bailey has run marathons and ultramarathons, and has pushed his body to its limits with mountaineering.
He qualified and ran the Boston Marathon in April before starting the journey for Mt. Everest a month later in May.
He was unable to complete it due to sickness, but finishing it is in his plans for 2024.
Bailey will be climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa in October, going back to Mt. Everest in May of 2024 and summiting the highest peak in Antarctica before skiing to the South Pole in December of 2024.
