Because he’s going to be around even less now that his campaign for governor is officially underway. Not that he’s been around all the much anyway. I like the way CBS describes how he’s spending his time:
Newsom has recently taken time off from campaigning to address budget issues in San Francisco, where he told reporters Thursday morning that he hoped to complete his budget before the June 1 deadline
Excuse me — “taken time off from campaigning?” Uh, isn’t campaiging “taking time off” from the job he’s been elected to do and is getting paid to do? Just for the record (thanks, Kimo Crossman for noticing this), the City Charter says:
CAEC § 13.5 (b)(2); Government Code §§ 24001, 24002 . The Mayor shall devote his or her entire time and attention to the duties of the office, and shall not devote time or attention to any other occupation or business
activity
Now, I know when any poitician runs for higher office, the current office suffers (Barack Obama wasn’t introducing a lot of legislation in the U.S. Senate last year). And that’s to be expected, and while the people of Illinois had a senator who was missing from the Senate a lot, I think most of them, like me, are glad that Obama did what he did.
Still, being mayor of a city that’s in a state of crisis is a little different. Running for governor is fine, but I’d rather it wasn’t Newsom’s major occupation, at least not right now.
Meanwhile, Sfist has a fascinating poll. These things are not at all scientific, and can easily be gamed, and it’s a small sample, but: remember, most sfist readers are San Franciscans, and I would guess the demographic skews young — that is, they’re Gavin’s people. And guess what?
About 50 percent like Jerry Brown. Only 30 percent like Newsom. A typical comment:
Let’s see, morally bankrupt, puppet mayor of San Francisco, morally bankrupt, idiot mayor of LA or the kooky old guy with more experience in his pinky than the other two combined.
Newsom better get his Plumpjack busboy uniform pressed or get used to being a socialite – again.
Gavin Newsom: Coming soon to a dog park near you, Mill Valley.
Now, before Nathan Ballard starts running around the office logging into every computer he can and piling up the Newsom votes, we all know that races are not won and lost on blog polls. Who knows — Jerry’s kids may have already started that game (although I don’t think they quite have it together at this point). And numbers aside, Newsom is running a sharp campaign. He’s selling himself as the agent of change, and Brown as yesterday’s news, and that will work — unless people take a hard look at what our mayor has actually done, in his own city.
Which doesn’t amount to much.