Free Republic

Cue up the violin strings. A sad tragedy is being played out in California. The Sacramento Bee has a story about how the Lieutenant Governor of that state, Gavin Newsom, must endure the unendurable as described in the article's headline: "Gavin Newsom breaks boredom in Sacramento with his own TV show." Yes, even though the Current TV ratings are in the toilet and might not even be carried on cable in the future, it's show business! Unfortunately, along with the "glamor" of showbiz, poor Newsom must endure the utter boredom of his, "ugh," Lt. Governor's job which requires him to...

San Francisco no longer will report to immigration authorities juveniles suspected of being in the United States illegally when they are arrested on a felony charge if they can show they have family ties to the Bay Area, are enrolled in school and are not repeat offenders, Mayor Ed Lee said Tuesday. The edict creates a middle ground between the hard-line position of Lee's predecessor, Gavin Newsom, who directed city law enforcement officers to report all arrested juveniles to federal authorities for possible deportation, and the Board of Supervisors, which backed a more liberal policy. Supervisors passed a law in...

The races for lieutenant governor and attorney general are too close to suggest that any candidate has a firm edge going into Tuesday's election, according to the latest Field Poll released Friday. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, is hanging onto a slim five-point edge of 42 percent to 37 percent over Republican Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado. The survey also found that Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley – the GOP candidate for attorney general – has dipped to a one-point lead over Democratic rival Kamala Harris, San Francisco's district attorney. The latest survey, which was conducted Oct....

It's November 3, 2010. You think you are waking up to a sunny California morning only to realize it's a dark, dark day. Jerry Brown is governor, Gavin Newsom is lieutenant governor, Kamala Harris is attorney general, and the rest of the Democrat ticket has prevailed. California is going to be controlled by San Francisco politics. Got your attention now? Tea Party folks have brought a refreshing candor to the conservative scene, demanding from conservative candidates a return to conservative principles. But we don't live in a perfect world. And in California, we live in a deeply skewed political landscape...

Touting education and job creation through green technology, former President Bill Clinton on Sunday night told San Jose State students they will bear some of the responsibility if Democrats lose their control of the House and the Senate on Election Day. "There's a reason people think that the Democrats are going to lose these houses," Clinton said. "The reason is you." So Clinton urged the enthusiastic crowd of 5,000 -- most of them students -- to tweet, text and e-mail their networks of friends to vote Democratic on Nov. 2. Clinton came to San Jose to campaign for gubernatorial candidate...

Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado is running a radio ad criticizing Democratic rival Gavin Newsom, San Francisco's mayor, for a city policy to try to rehabilitate and release undocumented minors being held for crimes – without reporting them to federal officials for possible deportation. Following is an analysis by Susan Ferriss of The Bee Capitol Bureau: Text Narrator: It took a triple murder for Mayor Gavin Newsom to admit San Francisco's sanctuary city policies were a misguided and costly mistake. Second narrator: For four years while Newsom was mayor, San Francisco refused to turn dangerous illegal immigrant criminals over to authorities...

If Tuesday's opening debate in the lieutenant governor's race is a sign of things to come, buckle up. Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado may be the incumbent, but he was on the attack early against Mayor Gavin Newsom, needling the mayor for his handling of the Cosco Busan oil spill, his wife's investments in oil companies and San Francisco's sanctuary city policy in a roughly 50-minute radio debate on KQED's Forum program. The mayor, for his part, tried to paint Maldonado as out of touch with the state on environmental issues and the embodiment of Sacramento political gridlock. Host Scott Shafer...

Former President Bill Clinton begins pitching for Brown and Newsom as "proven leaders" in green tech job creationFormer President Bill Clinton will begin reaching California voters today with a strong enviromental-based election pitch on behalf of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown and Lt. Gov. candidate Gavin Newsom, whom he says represent "the kind of leadership California needs" on green tech and alterntive energy to boost jobs and the economy.Clinton's email fundraising message to voters going out today calls them "two candidates whose creative ideas, proven ability to make progress and passionate commitment to our children's future will bring back the...

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, considered famously liberal by many, released a radio ad Thursday attacking his GOP rival for lieutenant governor for voting to raise taxes.

Speaker Mop & Glo made headlines for her call to investigate opponents of the Ground Zero mosque, but there was something else about her remarks that should have raised your hackles: “There is no question there is a concerted effort to make this a political issue by some. And I join those who have called for looking into how is this opposition to the mosque being funded,” she said. “How is this being ginned up that here we are talking about Treasure Island, something we’ve been working on for decades, something of great interest to our community as we...

San Francisco bashing is about to intensify. Three Democratic politicians with strong ties to San Francisco - Jerry Brown, Gavin Newsom and Kamala Harris - are engaged in tough statewide election battles and political experts say the GOP will probably seize on the city's reputation as a bastion of left-wing politics to attack them.Gubernatorial candidate Brown was born in San Francisco, served as Oakland's mayor and lives in the East Bay city while serving as the state attorney general; Newsom, vying for lieutenant governor, was born in San Francisco and is the city's mayor; and Attorney General candidate Harris was...

San Fran Mayor Gavin Newsom speech at LGBT Caucus at the California Democratic Convention April 2010

Michelle WallowingBull was born a boy. But growing up on Wyoming's Wind River Indian Reservation, she knew from age 5 that she was a girl inside. As a teen she bounced from the reservation to a South Dakota town to foster homes and back. In these remote communities, with a family steeped in addiction, she said, it was difficult to openly express the gender she deeply felt. Substance abuse and economic uncertainty followed — travails all too common for transgender people. But last week, WallowingBull worked the room at a job fair organized by San Francisco's Transgender Economic Empowerment Initiative,...

Gavin Newsom comments on the Tea Party held in Union Square in San Francisco on 4-15-10 and on whether Sarah Palin would be welcome next year at a repeart of that same event next year. Gavin Newsom is running for Lt. Governor in the state of California. LINK TO THE VIDEO

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom responding to Tax Day Tea Parties in San Francisco and Boston and whether Sarah Palin would be welcome next April 15th to a Tea Party in San Francisco.

Following Rep. Keith Ellison [Muslim Congressman], Rev. Al Sharpton, Rachel Maddow MSNBC, Gavin Newsom, [and others]

Newsom breaks his silence with the media SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom emerged Thursday from nearly three weeks of avoiding the public spotlight, to confront a massive city budget crisis. When the mayor dropped out of the governor's race, he dropped out of sight and steered clear of reporters until today. A smiling Newsom emerged today, even though the issue he wanted to discuss is grim. He told his department heads Thursday that San Francisco faces a $522 million deficit in the next fiscal year.

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....

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Legal Newsline)-San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom on Friday exited the California governor's race, leaving yet-to-announce Democratic candidate Jerry Brown the only figure preparing for a run for his party's nomination.

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 announced this afternoon that he is withdrawing from the California governor's race. More to follow.

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,

(09-17) 20:36 PDT -- Calling soda the new tobacco, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom will introduce legislation this fall that would charge a fee to retailers that sell sugary beverages. Newsom would need voter approval to tax individual cans of soda and sugary juice, but only needs approval from the Board of Supervisors to levy a fee on retailers.

As noted by John Stephenson of NewsBusters, much of the media has been ignoring the enormous Van Jones controversy. However, Joe Garofoli, the politics writer and blogger for Jones' hometown newspaper, the liberal San Francisco Chronicle, has just written about the toxic effect of Van Jones and who is standing by their Van and who isn't in his Politics blog: The Bay Area's Van Jones -- the Special Advisor for Green Jobs at the White House Council on Environmental Quality -- just finished apologizing for calling Republicans "a-holes" when he got something else to start explaining: How his signature got...

SAN FRANCISCO—Doughnuts could be a distant memory for San Francisco city workers. They must now follow "healthy meeting" guidelines under a sweeping initiative unveiled by Mayor Gavin Newsom Thursday to encourage better eating. That means less junk food and smaller portions at staff meetings. The mayor is also ordering all city departments to help locate vacant or unused city-owned land that could be used to grow food. Vendors that offer healthy food will get preference for city contracts and permits. All vending machines on city property additionally will have to meet new nutrition standards.

Looking to bring new blood into the San Francisco Police Department, Mayor Gavin Newsom has reached outside the city and selected George Gascon, police chief of Mesa, Ariz., to replace outgoing Chief Heather Fong.

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 Mayor Gavin Newsom's 2010 gubernatorial campaign announced Friday it will return a $25,000 contribution from a businessman who also is the son of Bay Area-based conservative radio talk personality Michael Savage. "The Newsom for California campaign is returning the contribution of Russell G. Weiner," campaign director Eric Jaye said in an e-mailed statement. "We believe that the confusion caused by the conflicts between the views expressed by Mr. Weiner in his campaign for State Assembly and the views and values of Mayor Newsom are best addressed this way." Rockstar energy drink founder and CEO Russell Weiner — son...

Mayor Gavin Newsom said Friday that 1,000 city workers would lose their jobs in the coming months to help close a growing budget deficit, a swift response after the city's biggest union this week rejected $38 million in wage concessions. The layoffs will hurt all city departments, according to the mayor's office, but will have the most drastic effect on the Department of Public Health, the city's largest agency. In addition to health care workers, recreation directors, security guards and others will lose their jobs. A total of 262 city workers have already lost their jobs over the last six...

Gavin Newsom, the divorced San Francisco mayor who provoked a constitutional crisis in 2004 by granting marriage licenses to 4,000 same-sex couples, has made it official: he is running for governor in the 2010 elections. Newsom, 41, a graduate of Santa Clara University who has described himself as a “lifelong Catholic,” chose to use a YouTube video, Facebook and Twitter to make the announcement on Tuesday. In the YouTube video, Newsom says, “I'm a candidate for governor of California because I know we can do better." Newsom’s 2004 decision to grant marriage licenses to 4,000 same-sex couples in San Francisco...

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 ......

The attacks on Miss California Carrie Prejean have gotten so bad that even same-sex marriage champion and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is taking notice. Prejean, the runner-up of last Sunday's Miss USA pageant, has been the target of reports from the Hollywood media intelligentsia after her feud with gossip blogger Perez Hilton for the stance she took on same-sex marriage. And Newsom, who had just announced his intentions to run for governor of California, has noticed. "I want to challenge her on her point-of-view," Newsom said in an appearance at Sapphire Energy, a bio-tech company, which aired on NBC's...

Illegal Immigrants would certainly benefit by having Mr. Newsom become Governor. However, this begs the following question: If Mayor Newsom is elected, and universal healthcare is enacted, will businesses see this as a threat to further burdeon them by imposing additional taxes, thus, redistributing their wealth for the purpose of funding universal healthcare for all, including the “Illegals” who live in the sanctuary cities of California? In addition, the ongoing outflow of cash that would be used to continue supporting entitlement programs for illegals could be another devastating blow to the already bankrupt state. This could certainly cause even more...

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.

Aiming to stake his claim to the tech-savvy young voters who helped elect President Obama, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, 41, today took to the new media to formally announce he's running for governor - by directly addressing hundreds of thousands of supporters simultaneously via YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. "We can't afford to keep returning to the same old tired ideas and expect the same result," the Democrat told supporters in his three-minute YouTube announcement, part of the unprecedented "virtual fly-around" campaign announcement done entirely in the new media. The gubernatorial candidate's announcement video, which premiered on his Web page,...

For a man prone to belittling politicians, Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco is proving to be a deft politician. In his run for governor, he is summoning all the skills he can to shed the political baggage of his hometown, where taming a rowdy parade is the sort of thing that can set off a popular backlash. He is known outside San Francisco for one thing above all: his renegade order legalizing same-sex marriage in 2004. So Newsom has been trekking across the state for weeks, trying to show that the "gigantic order-of-magnitude change" he envisions for California entails...

·11250 Waples Mill Road ·   Fairfax, Virginia 22030    ·800-392-8683   California: NRA Victory in San Francisco Lawsuit!   Thursday, January 29, 2009   PUBLIC HOUSING OFFICIALS DROP ILLEGAL BAN ON FIREARMS POSSESSION IN PUBLIC HOUSING An NRA-led coalition of self-defense civil rights groups including the Second Amendment Foundation and the California Rifle & Pistol Association (CRPA) has prevailed in a Second Amendment lawsuit challenging a ban on firearm possession in San Francisco public housing residences. “This success is further vindication of the U.S. Supreme Court's Heller ruling upholding the Second Amendment as protecting a fundamental, individual civil right for all law-abiding...

The only thing remotely interesting about San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's bizarre decision to upload his incredibly dull 7.5 hour "state of the city" speech to YouTube is the knowledge that it is sure to inspire parodies. So how dull is Newsom's speech? Well I challenge you to listen to just a couple of minutes of it without hearing the beckoning call of Mr. Sandman enticing you to enter a deep slumber. Here is the take on this YouTube speech by Michelle Malkin: Hey, remember that judge who sentenced noise violators to Barry Manilow music? Here’s a worse sentence: Sitting...

(11-05) 10:19 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- Jack Hannan and his partner of 10 years, Steven Gard, didn't get married when Mayor Gavin Newsom took the historic step of granting licenses to gay couples in 2004. Now the San Francisco couple worry they won't get a second chance. "We waited because we wanted the issue settled," said Hannan, 39. "Now we're really nervous." This morning, it was clear that voters had approved Proposition 8, which would amend the California Constitution to ban same-sex marriage. Even as thousands in San Francisco's Castro district poured into the streets to dance, chant and wave...

Five months and thousands of weddings after California's highest court sanctioned same-sex marriage, anxious eyes around the nation will closely follow voters Tuesday as they decide whether to turn back the clock. Given the state's size and influence, the vote on a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage has become a referendum on sexual orientation and civil rights. Both sides call it the "Gettysburg" of the power struggle between the gay rights movement and the Christian right, with the victors capturing momentum in other states. "As California goes, so goes the nation," Mayor Gavin Newsom boldly predicted at a City Hall...

As we have seen before, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom isn't exactly the brightest bulb in the universe when it comes to political smarts. In fact, many blame Newsom's poorly timed push for gay marriages in 2004 for John Kerry's presidential election loss that year. Despite the animosity towards Newsom for his role in causing the Democrats to lose their chance at the White House, San Francisco Chronicle political writers Joe Garofoli and Carla Marinucci gushed over Newsom as a new "hotshot" at the Democrat convention a few weeks ago: Both Newsom and San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris appeared...

First YES on 8 television ad. Yes on 8: Whether You Like It Or Not

Mayor of San Francisco Gavin Newsom to campaign against Prop. 8 San Francisco, Sep 6, 2008 / 08:04 am (CNA).- Gavin Newsom, Mayor of San Francisco and a self-described Catholic, will join a political campaign against Proposition 8, a California initiative that both would overturn the May 15 California Supreme Court decision mandating same-sex marriage and would reinstate marriage between only a man and a woman. Newsom will help launch the “No on 8 – Equality for All Campaign” today at the old Tower Records building in San Francisco, the California Catholic Daily reports. In 2004, Newsom provoked a constitutional...

San Francisco’s “Catholic” mayor will join tomorrow in the official launching of the “No on 8 – Equality for All Campaign” at the old Tower Records store on Market Street. In early January, on the occasion of his inauguration to a second term, Mayor Gavin Newsom and his family attended a Mass at the historic Mission Dolores Basilica. And to this day he continues to describe himself as Catholic. Newsom, said to have his eyes on the governorship, will be acting in open defiance of California’s bishops, who have officially endorsed Proposition 8 and have urged Catholics to support it....

Lawsuit: Producer Did Not Follow Through With Prior Arrangements, RepaymentSan Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, filed a lawsuit against an independent film producer and his company on Monday on accusations he used her $75,000 investment and did not follow through with prior arrangements or repayment, according to court documents. Siebel Newsom made the investment in January 2004 based on the belief that she would be repaid and that she would act in and help produce a film made by China Venture Films, LLC, also known as China Ventures, according to court documents. A film called "Milk and...

What do you do when you are the mayor of San Francisco and your poorly timed push for gay marriages is blamed for your party's loss in a presidential election, you get yourself involved in a sleazy sex scandal where you get caught sleeping with the wife of your campaign manager, and a much criticized policy of declaring the municipality you represent a "sanctuary city" results in a multiple murder by an illegal alien? Why you get the San Francisco Chronicle to write a glowing story about you enthusing about how you are a "hotshot to watch" with a bright...

After being assailed by the police officer whose satiric videos earned him and nearly two dozen others suspensions in 2005, San Francisco Police Chief Heather Fong acknowledged that she has gone years without taking the target practice required for officers who carry guns. Department rules require all police officers who carry guns to pass shooting range tests every six months... The issue of Fong's proficiency with a gun was raised last week by Officer Andrew Cohen. He wrote to Police Commission President Theresa Sparks that the chief had gone five years without being certified, which he called "an egregious matter...

Some of the anti-Israel, anti-Zionist rhetoric in the San Francisco Bay Area is simple anti-Semitism, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post Sunday. Newsom, in the country for four days as part of a large San Francisco Jewish Community Federation delegation, said he expected to see some people protesting against his trip here when he gives a commencement address next week at San Francisco State University. The university was the site of some of the ugliest anti-Israel protests in the US during the second intifada, with some pro-Palestinian protesters chanting "Hitler didn't finish the...

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is considering a 2010 run for governor - a campaign that would embrace many of the same divisive causes he has championed as mayor, including same-sex marriage, universal health care and protections for illegal immigrants, The Chronicle has learned. Newsom has long been rumored to be a potential contender in what is likely to be a crowded field of Democrats looking to succeed Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a list that includes Attorney General and former Gov. Jerry Brown, former state Controller Steve Westly and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. In recent months, Newsom has quietly...

Who says that the issue of global warming is a matter of science, not faith? Just last week, Mayor Gavin Newsom proved belief trumps data. The Chronicle reported that a San Francisco Public Utilities Commission study found that the giant turbines he wanted to put underwater below the Golden Gate Bridge would cost way too much money to install and maintain. They would generate power at a cost of 80 cents to $1.40 per kilowatt hour -- as opposed to Pacific Gas and Electric's 12 cents per hour commercial rate. It seems the turbines would produce only one or two...