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Mayor Gavin Newsom was spotted this morning at City Hall, but there's still no word on his mysterious disappearance. He arrived at his office at about 9:30 a.m., walking past members of the media who were hoping he'd comment on his absence. No such luck. "The mayor is back, and he's busy conducting meetings in his office in City Hall right now," said his spokesman, Nathan Ballard. Newsom is meeting with staff and plans to meet with both sides of the hotel workers' dispute sometime today, Ballard said. He is not planning to make any public appearances. "He's been kept...

From major conferences at the Moscone Center to small coffee shops in the Mission, San Franciscans are buzzing about Mayor Gavin Newsom and the stunning turn of fortune that in a few short days took him from being a candidate for governor to hiding out in Hawaii. From Newsom's highs, like his law-breaking same-sex marriages in 2004, to his lows, like an admitted affair and alcohol problem in 2007, the telegenic, risk-prone mayor has always given his constituents something to wag their tongues about - and this bizarre chapter is no different. Last Friday, hours after speaking before a bank...

It's understandable that San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, having given up on his gubernatorial ambitions, might want to take time to lick wounds, lie low and, as my colleague C.W. Nevius suggests, do some reflecting. Unfortunately, there's important and immediate mayoral business to attend to. When Newsom's press secretary, Nathan Ballard, told The Chronicle that Newsom will be back "soon," one hoped he meant this morning. That's when Newsom was scheduled to speak to 6,000 land-use professionals, architects, planners, real estate developers and other urban experts from all over the world at the opening of the Urban Land Institute conference...

After three days of radio silence following his withdrawal from the governor's race, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom unexpectedly jetted off Tuesday morning to Hawaii to join his wife and baby daughter, who already were vacationing there. The trip, which the mayor apparently booked on his own, caught his staffers off guard. Many did not know he was gone until the city attorney's office sent out a notice informing them that the mayor had left the state and naming Supervisor Carmen Chu acting mayor.Mayoral spokesman Nathan Ballard apparently was among those who did not get a heads-up about the trip....

Last week, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, the boy-wonder politician sought out by network cameras at the Democratic National Convention, profiled in Newsweek and the New York Times, was forced to pull out of the race for California governor before opponent Jerry Brown even officially declared his candidacy. Newsom's campaign wasn't sputtering. It never got off the ground. A candidate who raised nearly $6 million for his 2003 bid for mayor (with maximum contributions limited to $500) only raised a little over $3 million this time, according to the California secretary of state's office. It was a harsh political lesson....

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom made a surprise announcement Friday afternoon that he was dropping out of the gubernatorial race, leaving the Democrats with no declared candidate for the top statewide office. Attorney General Jerry Brown has opened an exploratory committee for governor but has yet to formally announce his candidacy. Nonetheless, Brown has opened a wide lead over Newsom in both fund-raising and in polls. "It is with great regret I announce today that I am withdrawing from the race for governor of California," Newsom said in a statement. "With a young family and responsibilities at city hall, I...

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom on Wednesday vetoed the Board of Supervisors' legislation changing the city's sanctuary city policy. The letter is a formality on two counts: the supervisors have the votes to override Newsom's veto, and the mayor has said he'll ignore the legislation anyway. At issue is legislation, written by Supervisor David Campos, requiring that undocumented youth be reported to federal immigration officials for possible deportation after they're convicted of a felony, not when they're first arrested, as is the current policy. Newsom, has said the legislation must be ignored because it violates federal law.

CALLING ALL SAN FRANCISCANS & those of you who want to green your cities! We’re interviewing San Francisco mayor GAVIN NEWSOM next Wednesday the 28th at 12pm PST, and we’re inviting YOU to join us next for this live webcast conversation with the country’s greenest mayor! Join us to find out more about groundbreaking energy projects,

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Legal Newsline)-Former U.S. President Bill Clinton's endorsement of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom for California governor won't likely hurt his rival Attorney General Jerry Brown's campaign, a leading analyst said Tuesday. On Monday, the former president in Los Angeles endorsed Newsom in the 2010 Democratic primary for governor. In making his endorsement, Clinton did not mention Brown, whom he had battled for the 1992 Democratic U.S. presidential nomination.

There's still no love lost between Supervisor Chris Daly and Mayor Gavin Newsom. Daly, making a guest appearance Monday at the Board of Supervisors' public safety committee to support Supervisor David Campos' amendment to the city's sanctuary ordinance, said Newsom should be "held accountable" for releasing a confidential legal memo that said Campos' amendment violated federal law and would invite a legal challenge to the entire sanctuary policy. Daly downplayed the memo, saying it outlines a worst-case scenario and "exaggerates the legal risk involved." But he also said Newsom had provided a road map to anyone looking to challenge the...

When former President Bill Clinton officially endorses San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom for governor today, the question on many people's minds will be: Is this about Newsom, or Jerry Brown? Clinton and Brown's decades-long feud is, after all, one of the Democratic Party's nastiest, starting when they both sought the party's presidential nomination in 1992. Seventeen years later, the former California governor has opened an exploratory committee for a possible gubernatorial run, and Clinton's endorsement has set off speculation about a redux of the fight. Newsom discounted such talk in an interview with The Bee conducted shortly after the endorsement...

It's been a long, strange trip since Gavin Newsom became San Francisco's mayor. When he first ran for City Hall's top job, Newsom led with a campaign to do something about the city's homeless population. Well, the homeless are still here, but Newsom has moved on to a new target - he is running to be the next governor of California by picking on the personal habits of people who for the most part work hard and pay taxes. Example: Ask some out-of-towners to walk Market Street from the Ferry Building to City Hall. They'll tell you how beautiful San...

Bill Clinton Supports Gavin Newsom For California Governor September 15, 2009 Seventeen years after Bill Clinton and Jerry Brown clashed in the 1992 race for the White House, the former president made clear today that bygones will not be bygones in the 2010 campaign for California governor: Clinton signed on to support Brown rival Gavin Newsom in the Democratic primary. It is highly unusual – perhaps unprecedented, according to the San Francisco mayor’s campaign – for a former president to take sides in a California gubernatorial primary. But the bad blood between Clinton and Brown, now state attorney general, runs...

Mayor Gavin Newsom has repeatedly boasted of balancing San Francisco's dire budget deficit without raising taxes - but has quietly introduced hundreds of new fees and fee increases that would make living, working and traveling in the city more expensive. Some of them are likely to be controversial, including charging youths a daily fee if they're detained at juvenile hall, charging poor people a monthly fee if they need help managing their welfare money and charging tourists - including those who live as close as Daly City - more to enjoy Golden Gate Park facilities. The mayor has widely discussed...

San Francisco property owners could pay hundreds or thousands of dollars more per year under a measure introduced Tuesday at the Board of Supervisors - one of many tax proposals that could be placed before voters this fall to help the struggling city. Other options on the table for a November ballot include an increase to the sales tax and payroll tax, another business tax and an increase to the vehicle license fee. And the city, which has been hit hard by the economic downturn, will also impose dozens of new fees that do not require voter approval but will...

Ever since Gavin Newsom opened San Francisco's City Hall to same-sex weddings in 2004, he hasn't shied away from the political, legal and social firestorm he helped fuel. Yet the San Francisco mayor's gubernatorial campaign has also been working doggedly to shed his single-issue candidate persona. Newsom and his handlers have tried to advance his image as a "hard-headed pragmatist" who gets things done, who reshaped San Francisco with green buildings and new housing and now is making tough city budget choices amid California's fiscal crisis. But when the California Supreme Court affirmed the Proposition 8 ban on gay marriage...

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, a declared Democratic 2010 California gubernatorial candidate, has decided to return a hefty $25,000 campaign contribution -- from the son of controversial conservative talk show host, Michael Savage. As we reported earlier this month, Savage was one of 16 individuals on a "name and shame" list who was banned from the United Kingdom. U.K. Home Secretary Jaqui Smith charged that Savage's right wing controverial broadcasts constituted "hate speech" and could promote violence, and did not represent the "values" of Britian.Now, the move at home against Savage comes after a progressive activist in San Francisco, Aaron...

So Mayor Gavin Newsom tells The Economist that if The Chronicle were to disappear "People under 30 won't even notice." Hey Mayor Twitter -- if you can hear us from wherever you are outside San Francisco -- that's not what you told CBS5 back in February when asked about the possible effect of a Chronicle closure. "I think it's a very serious concern for all of us," Newsom said waaaaaaaaay back then. "It is part of the fabric of our community. You cannot have a world-class city without a world-class newspaper. So I think it is a very serious concern...

Everyone has an opinion about the dying newspaper industry, including Gavin Newsom. The SF leader turned gubernatorial candidate/media pundit apparently told The Economist if the Chronicle were to fold, "People under 30 won't even notice." This guy looks awfully familiar If that's the case, then people under 30 won't even notice you haven't been our mayor for more than a year. So, Gavin, whether you like it or not, it's time to burn through those frequent flier miles to come back here and take care of your constituents.

Rockstar energy drink founder and CEO Russell Weiner - son of Michael Weiner, aka Bay Area-based, nationally broadcast conservative talk radio talk host Michael Savage - on Monday made a $25,000 contribution to San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's 2010 gubernatorial campaign. Yes, the son of Michael Savage, who just last October was saying Newsom is "in love again with the gay mafia" and "a whack-job as a mayor - 'Any-twosome' Newsom." Y’know, Savage — the guy the Brits don’t care to have around. Is this a case of the apple falling far from the tree? It's not as if the...

. . . Speaking at the Commonwealth Club on Thursday, I was asked for my thumbnail assessment of next year's Democratic gubernatorial primary.Here it is: Gavin Newsom is trying to position himself as the new Barack Obama and his main rival, Attorney General Jerry Brown, as old John McCain. Jerry is trying to position himself as Barack Obama as well, and Newsom as the new Sarah Palin. I was over in Hawaii last week speaking to a group of insurance brokers and agents. They couldn't understand why health care had dropped from being the No. 1 White House issue...

Democratic state Attorney General Jerry Brown -- the former two-term governor expected to make another run in 2010 -- has issued the ultimate challenge to newbie Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom. He says he's willing to do "any test" to prove that he can meet and match any candidate, anywhere -- on brain power. Brown, 71, made the comments on KGO 810 AM this morning, after he was asked about the "generational" differences between himself and the San Francisco mayor, 41, who declared himself a candidate for governor earlier this week. "If he's asserting that the year he's born ......

San Francisco, CA (AHN) - San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom announced he will run for governor of California. The 41-year-old mayor used social networking sites Twitter and Facebook to announce his decision to seek the Democratic nomination for the state's gubernatorial race to succeed Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. "I'm running for Governor because California needs a new direction. In San Francisco, we've defended people's civil rights, created a universal health care program, protected teachers from layoffs and enacted a local stimulus plan that will put people back to work and save jobs. And we've done it while balancing our budgets...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has made it official—he's running to become California's next governor. The 41-year-old mayor used the social networking sites Twitter and Facebook to announce on Tuesday that he was seeking the Democratic nomination to succeed Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Frank Schubert walked off a big winner at the just-concluded 2009 Pollie Awards for his come-from-behind knockout punch to same-sex marriage, and he had a special guy to thank: Mayor Gavin Newsom. "Like it or not."Schubert and his crew were honored at the American Association of Political Consultants' annual meeting in Washington, D.C., for their successful fight to pass Proposition 8 in November, which banned same-sex marriage in California.Schubert acknowledged that half the crowd at the Gaylord hotel ballroom didn't agree with his stance.Still, he was happy to give the political pros from across the country a 45-minute seminar on...

What is it - pay up or payback? You decide. For weeks, Minister Christopher Muhammad and members of the Nation of Islam have dogged San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's fledgling gubernatorial campaign up and down the state. Now City Hall is returning the favor, demanding that the minister's school at Hunters Point pay the city $168,193 in delinquent rent.The school squeeze comes as the mayor is preparing for another gubernatorial town-hall meeting tonight in Palo Alto - and bracing for more of the Nation of Islam's in-your-face tactics.As we reported Monday, Muhammad and his crew have been pummeling Newsom for...

We told you that Mark Bogetich, a Republican "political vulnerability researcher," had requested a variety of information about the Department of Public Health's new "Healthy Penis" campaign. He wouldn't say why, but it could be used someday against Mayor Gavin Newsom in his run for governor. After all, health staffers walking around in giant penis costumes to promote syphillis testing might not play well in certain parts of the state.

The mayor and Mrs. Newsom are pregnant! Rumors began circulating around the Internet and City Hall this afternoon after a gossip blog said friends of Jennifer Siebel Newsom, 34, had revealed she was pregnant. After an emergency powwow, Gavin Newsom's handlers confirmed the happy news."The mayor and the first lady are thrilled to be embarking on this adventure together and they appreciate your good wishes," a statement read.No word yet on when the baby's due.Naturally, the City Hall chitchat has turned to how this might play in Newsom's run for governor. Analysts say that starting a family can only help...

Assessor: Catholic Archdiocese owes millions Erin Allday, Chronicle Staff Writer San Francisco will try to collect up to $15 million in taxes from the Archdiocese of San Francisco, which is refusing to pay certain taxes on properties the church is transferring from one Catholic nonprofit organization to another. That tax bill would be the second largest of its kind in San Francisco history. But the archdiocese has appealed the charge, saying the church should be exempt from property transfer taxes for a variety of reasons - primarily because the properties are being moved among groups that all are a part...

When vandals covered the walls of the Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church with swastikas and other graffiti last weekend, Gavin Newsom condemned the attack, as any mayor should. But according to some Catholics, the mayor (and the Board of Supervisors) is partly to blame for the vandalism. "Both Newsom and the board have shown nothing but contempt for the First Amendment rights of Catholics," said a statement released by the Catholic League the day after the graffiti was discovered. "When crucifixes are sold as sex toys and Catholic sensibilities are assaulted by naked men in the street at the annual...

San Francisco's budget deficit for next year has grown to $575.6 million - equal to nearly half the city's discretionary spending account. It's a financial crisis Mayor Gavin Newsom called one of the worst the city has experienced since the 1930s. Newsom will announce his plan for cutting up to $125 million from this year's $6.6 billion budget today, but gave few details about what it will include. "This is nothing we've seen before," he told The Chronicle. "As difficult as these cuts will be, the real challenge is in the next three, four, six months." Today's announcement is expected...

Gavin Newsom may or may not have kicked off his gubernatorial campaign (he still hasn't decided if he's running or not) with a nice, safe town hall meeting at his alma mater in Larkspur Monday night. Armed with a microphone in the library at Redwood High School, Newsom got to run around like a TV talk-show host (his words, not ours -- he compared himself to Phil Donahue), taking questions from the 100 or so Marinites at the event.It was the first of what could be many such political events as he considers a run to replace Schwarzenegger in 2010....

With another Proposition 8 protest expected to bring thousands to the Capitol in Sacramento today, both sides continue to accuse each other of a four-letter word in the same-sex marriage debate, and it isn't "love." It's about the polar opposite — hate. A pro-Proposition 8 group, the National Organization for Marriage, has a new Web site, AboveTheHate.com, that allows people to sign an electronic letter to "say 'Enough!' to the campaign of hate and intimidation" against supporters of the marriage ban. In the 18 days since California voters banned same-sex marriage by 52-48 percent, the heat on both sides of...

It's been said that San Francisco politics is like a dysfunctional family. But that's unfair to dysfunctional families. In the last eight years, the city's leading politicians have seemed more concerned with petty personal grudges than governing. There are supervisors - hello, Chris Daly - who will reflexively oppose anything Mayor Gavin Newsom proposes. Again and again, the mayor's office is quick to rise to the bait but not so eager to reach out and build bridges. And so, as four new members of the Board of Supervisors prepare to take their seats, here's some advice: Knock it off. This...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi expressed deep disappointment on Friday that California voters approved Prop. 8, the measure banning same-sex marriage, and defended her ally, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, against critics who say his actions contributed to its passage. In a wide-ranging interview with The Chronicle, Pelosi said she believes some voters might not have fully understood the initiative, which overturned a state Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage. The measure was approved 52 to 48 percent. "Unfortunately, I think people thought they were making a statement about what their view of same-sex marriage was," the San Francisco Democrat said....

Election night was not kind to Gavin Newsom, who may end up one of the biggest losers after suffering a potentially crushing loss with Proposition 8 and at best breaking even in the local contests he had a stake in. Political analysts have long argued that Newsom has short coattails in local politics - a theory in play with the Board of Supervisors races, in which at least three of the seven seats up for grabs seem likely to go to candidates he did not endorse. With the local ballot measures, voters for the most part sided with Newsom's choices,...

As San Francisco and the blue state majority of California nurse their election euphoria hangover, let's point out the obvious about the passage of Prop. 8: Gavin Newsom screwed it up. Voters are the ones who make the decision but no one person handed the Yes on 8 campaign a more persuasive and compelling sound bite than our own mayor. Even if there were other flaws in the anti-8 operation, he was unquestionably the poster child for the pro-8 push, whether you like it or not. And unlike Willie Brown, whose 70s high afro and muttonchop sideburn photo got used...

SAN FRANCISCO — While this city is known as the epicenter of the gay rights movement, the Castro has been its hypocenter — the origin of the explosion. And Tuesday night was no exception. As results rolled in for Proposition 8, which would amend the California constitution to prevent same-sex couples from marrying, part of Castro Street was transformed into an election dance party, complete with thumping music, colored lights and thousands of energized voters. But it was unclear what, in the end, they would be celebrating. The race was tight. With a little more than a third of precincts...

SAN FRANCISCO -- After a heated, divisive campaign fueled by a record $73 million of spending, California voters have approved Proposition 8, which would change the state Constitution to ban same-sex marriage. Opponents promptly filed suit to try to block the measure from taking effect.With 96 percent of the vote counted, Prop. 8 was winning by a decisive 400,000-vote margin, 52.2 percent to 47.8 percent. It piled up huge margins in the Central Valley and carried some Democratic strongholds such as Los Angeles County. The measure lost in every Bay Area county but Solano.As the vote counting continued this morning,...

In the last week of what could be one of the most important political fights of his career, Mayor Gavin Newsom is campaigning heavily against Proposition 8, turning to his supporters with pleas to vote and convince their friends and relatives to oppose the same-sex marriage ban. The mayor is hosting a private fundraiser at his Russian Hill home Wednesday night and has already picked up $125,000 in contributions from those attending the event. On Wednesday afternoon, he's holding a forum with employees at Google, and over the next several days he'll be hitting nearly every major Bay Area radio...

If Prop. 8 wins, Newsom will be scapegoated. But the recriminations should focus on Ronald George.I voted against Proposition 8, just as I voted against Proposition 22 in 2000, on equality-under-the-law grounds. I hope the anti-gay-marriage constitutional amendment fails on Tuesday. But I'm increasingly beginning to suspect it will pass. Backers have mounted a shrewdly framed TV ad campaign that doesn't have the harsh edge many expected from die-hard opponents of gay marriage. Its focus on the possibility that school kids might be taught about gay marriage has touched a chord among parents. (No, I don't think this claim is...

We told you back in May about Mayor Gavin Newsom's plan to install 10 bright orange parking meters - dubbed homeless meters - around the city with signs reading "Be a part of change. Don't give change." The idea was for people to drop their nickels and dimes into meters instead of giving them to panhandlers, and the money would be dispersed to nonprofits serving homeless people. The installation of the meters was supposedly just weeks away, but as you may have noticed, they're still not up.Turns out the message wasn't exactly received the way the mayor wanted. People thought...

Police were so worried about Mayor Gavin Newsom's safety at his Big Sky wedding awhile back that they drove his city-owned Chevrolet Tahoe hybrid all the way from San Francisco to Hamilton, Mont. - and back - to ensure the mayor had a car with all the security trimmings on hand. That's a 2,000-mile round trip that takes a total of 30 hours of driving time, according to AAA of Northern California, and consumes about 100 gallons of gasoline. And while the new, $50,000-plus SUV was rounding the bend into Montana's Bitterroot Valley, where bride Jennifer Siebel's family was hosting...

Supporters of gay marriage in California are scrambling to raise funds in response to an unexpectedly strong campaign by Christian conservatives and others to amend the state constitution and ban the practice. Proposition 8, a state ballot initiative up for a vote on November 4, would amend the state constitution so that “only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognised in California”. Gay rights activists were shocked when a public opinion poll published this month found 47 per cent of respondents favoured the measure, with 42 per cent opposed and 10 per cent undecided. The result...

A group of San Francisco first-graders took an unusual field trip to City Hall on Friday to toss rose petals on their just-married lesbian teacher - putting the public school children at the center of a fierce election battle over the fate of same-sex marriage. The 18 Creative Arts Charter School students took a Muni bus and walked a block at noon to toss rose petals and blow bubbles on their just-married teacher Erin Carder and her wife Kerri McCoy, giggling and squealing as they mobbed their teacher with hugs. Mayor Gavin Newsom, a friend of a friend, officiated. A...

Like it or not, Mayor Gavin Newsom is proving to be the gift that keeps on giving for the campaign to deprive same-sex couples of their right to marry. Newsom's hyperkinetic rally cry after the May 15 Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality - "The door's wide open now ... it's going to happen ... whether you like it or not," he shouted gleefully - made him the inevitable star of the Yes on 8 TV spots. I say "inevitable" because I remember my first reaction when I saw his gloating, taunting speech on live television that day. A man...

Gavin Newsom has always played a starring role in the same-sex marriage debate, but in recent weeks that role has turned decidedly unheroic. The mayor has become the reluctant face of the campaign opposing same-sex unions with the help of a prominent Yes-on-Proposition 8 TV ad. Conservative blogs have been atwitter about Newsom last week officiating at the wedding of a lesbian teacher whose class of first-graders took a field trip to celebrate with her.In many ways, Newsom has become the single best campaign tool for proponents of Prop. 8 - and that might have been inevitable, political experts said....

Supporters of Proposition 8, which would ban same-sex marriage in California, are running their first television ad.The commercial features San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom making a celebratory speech. The state Supreme Court had just invalidated a law overwhelmingly passed by voters in 2000 that declared "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." Following is a text of the ad and an analysis by Aurelio Rojas of The Bee's Capitol Bureau: The ad Newsom: This door's wide open now. It's going to happen whether you like it or not.Narrator: Four judges ignored 4 million...

Opponents of same-sex marriage didn't have to look far to find footage of a boisterous San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom declaring - in his best Howard Dean voice - that gay marriage is here to stay, "like it or not." They took it right off the city's official Web site. "It stood out like a diamond on a donkey's behind," said Frank Schubert, co-chairman of the campaign to pass Proposition 8, the constitutional amendment on the Nov. 4 ballot to ban same-sex marriages. The Newsom moment was like a gift from fundamentalist heaven."He just looked so smug and cocky," Schubert...

San Francisco -- Nearly 30 percent of the felony offenders San Francisco juvenile justice officials have reported to federal immigration authorities since the city stopped shielding youths from deportation have turned out to be adults, authorities say. The city's Juvenile Probation Department has referred 58 offenders to federal authorities since Mayor Gavin Newsom announced July 2 that the city no longer would protect youths from deportation under San Francisco's sanctuary law. The mayor took the step after The Chronicle revealed that the city was paying for flights home and $7,000-a-month group homes for underage, undocumented offenders, who as adults could...