Free Republic

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...

The smiling photo of Gavin Newsom and the city seal emblazoned on a booklet called "The Way to Happiness" sure make it seem as though San Francisco's mayor is heartily endorsing Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard's writings. The booklet's back cover even shows a letter of support purportedly written by Newsom that echoes some of the mayor's favorite buzzwords: San Francisco is "a city of innovation" and is "the finest city in the world." But the giveaway is in the second paragraph, in which the fictitious letter from Newsom says San Francisco is home to "740,000 souls." He usually prefers...

Critical Mass, the loosely organized bicycle group that ties up rush-hour traffic once a month in Minneapolis, has demonstrated who rules our streets. But Minneapolis isn't the only place where the Mass mob has strong-armed the police and City Hall, and left outraged motorists fuming but impotent. Today, Critical Mass cyclists cow commuters in more than 300 cities, from Denver to Rio de Janeiro, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The ride got its start in San Francisco (where else?) in 1992 with about 50 cyclists. Authorities there looked the other way as riders ran red lights and snarled traffic....

In a city that has a reputation for being home to more dogs than children, the number of families planning to move out of San Francisco has decreased in recent years -- and on Thursday Mayor Gavin Newsom said he hopes to be able to reverse the trend of family flight. The population of children living in the city has dropped by more than 33 percent since 1960, and today there are just 112,000 young people under the age of 18 living in San Francisco, Newsom said. But the mayor painted an optimistic picture of what the future will look...

San Francisco -- Saying he wants to start his second term with a clean slate, Mayor Gavin Newsom today asked all city department heads and anybody he has appointed to serve on a city commission or board to hand in their letters of resignation. On Friday, Newsom also told all senior staffers in his office to do the same. Newsom told department heads at his regular Monday department head meeting that he wanted each of them to turn in letters of resignation, but didn't say how many resignations he ultimately would accept, according to Mitch Katz, director of the city's...

Mayor Gavin Newsom and District Attorney Kamala Harris have sent a letter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asking him to halt gun shows at the Cow Palace. The Crossroads of the West Gun Show happening there this weekend. The letter follows a Thursday announcement by Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, that he would introduce legislation to ban gun shows at the arena. The officials say that the shows attract people who sell guns illegally and that those guns are being used in crimes in the city. They have no evidence to support those claims, however.

S.F. Mayor Newsom gives endorsement to Clinton CANDIDATE OUTLINES VIEWS ON GAY ISSUESBy Mary Anne Ostrom Mercury NewsFresh from a Hollywood presidential forum on gay issues, Sen. Hillary Clinton accepted the endorsement Friday of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, the man some leading Democrats blamed three years ago for scaring voters away from them after his unorthodox push for gay marriage. Underscoring how gay politics have changed since then, the leading Democratic candidates appeared Thursday night at a forum sponsored by gay activists and a gay-oriented television network. Clinton accepted the endorsement, saying she shares "an optimism and confidence" with...

Great Gavin Newsom Graphic - Worth the look! San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom joined fellow Californicator Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and endorsed Hillary's bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The law also makes it illegal to possess or sell firearms on city and county property and ... The measure's co-sponsors concede that it will have little effect on the proliferation of illegal firearms. The prohibition of guns on county property does not apply to Housing Authority sites, and the ban on selling guns on county property does not apply to the annual gun show at the Cow Palace.

This theory is by no means foolproof. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, remains popular despite an affair with his campaign manager's wife. Former Sen. Bob Packwood (R-Ore.) was unseated in the mid-'90s amid groping allegations that would make Schwarzenegger blush. But it may well be that Republicans are better at using their opponents' sexual peccadilloes against them, summoning up the moral outrage among voters that can be deadly in a close race. It also doesn't help roving-eyed Democrats that women are a mainstay of the party, and women don't appreciate men who cheat. Villaraigosa, a Democrat who is...

In San Francisco's effort to pay the soaring cost for retiree health benefits, it's $500,000 down, $4.9 billion to go. The city, like most local governments and school districts in California, has put aside no money to cover the fast-growing cost of delivering on health care coverage promised to its workers once they hit retirement age. But in San Francisco, the financial liability hanging over the city is one of the heaviest in the state, thanks in part to the generosity of its employee health care benefits. "As this number keeps growing ... it can cripple our budget,'' said Supervisor...

It certainly appeared spontaneous and made for some great theater on both sides, but the truth is, San Francisco Supervisor Chris Daly had been stoking rumors about Mayor Gavin Newsom's supposed cocaine use for months before his outburst last week at the Board of Supervisors. And for just as long, the mayor and his crew knew it was coming. One of the earliest hints came in March when Daly made it clear over coffee with us that the mayor's private life was fair game in the upcoming election -- including questions about his drinking, his rehab and his affair with...

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Mayor Bloomberg is decrying the state of the 2008 presidential race, faulting the major party candidates for offering shallow, simplistic prescriptions, and scolding the press for failing to demand more from those seeking the White House. During an appearance at Google's headquarters in Silicon Valley yesterday, Mr. Bloomberg said the televised debates among the presidential candidates have been, in essence, a waste of time. "They have absolutely nothing to do with the job and the qualifications. And they don't tell you anything about whether or not any of those candidates would be good or bad presidents....

Unreliability makes Muni reviled; agency's chief admits 'status quo is not acceptable'. The opening of the new T-Third streetcar line in San Francisco was supposed to be a crowning accomplishment for the Municipal Railway, an ambitious project that promised to accelerate economic revitalization and community pride in the city's struggling southeastern neighborhoods. Instead, the 5.1-mile rail service expansion revealed profound flaws in the city's heavily used public transit system, unleashing a torrent of pent-up public scorn. The Muni-was-late excuse wears thin for riders who regularly show up tardy to work, school, jury duty and child care. The new route came...

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said he cannot understand why people are so upset with him. News of Newsome’s sexual affair with his former appointments secretary, Ruby Rippey-Tourk, wife of former Newsom adviser Alex Tourk has sparked criticism and calls for his resignation. Unsurprisingly, the criticism has not been ameliorated by Newsome’s announcement that he is going to undergo treatment for alcoholism. “I don’t see what all the fuss is about,” Newsome complained. “President Clinton had lots of affairs, but he’s ‘Mr. Cool’ with the media. Senator Kennedy got drunk, drove off a bridge and killed a young woman he...

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom told department heads this afternoon he is seeking counseling for alcohol abuse, sources familiar with the meeting told The Chronicle. Newsom told members of his administration that the help he is seeking would not require him to step aside even temporarily as it might if he entered a residential rehabilitation program, according to the sources.

February 3, 2007 The Day After the Day After So your Alex Tourk. Everything is fine and honky dorky until your wife, out of the blue, admits to having a fling with not only your boss but one of your best buddies. Even worse, it appears the everyone in the city (except us) knew about it but you didn't. Man, that's one hell of a bad week. Whenever we see these storylines on TV or in the movies, it always ends badly, like in people being shot and killed badly. So where are we with all of this? Well everybody...

Garcia: Sex scandal media frenzy won't end soon (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu) S.F. Mayor Gavin Newson is bound to be in the center of a feeding frenzy reminiscent of Bill Clinton's Printer Friendly | PDF | Email | digg Ken Garcia, The Examiner Read more by Ken Garcia Feb 2, 2007 3:00 AM (15 hrs ago) Current rank: # 3 of 12,095 articles SAN FRANCISCO - One of Gavin Newsom’s handlers asked me on Thursday how long I thought the revelation of the mayor’s affair with his top aide’s wife would stay in the news cycle. Oh, maybe two or three...