By Steven T. Jones
So the Examiner thinks we should all just back off of Mayor Gavin Newsom, in the process contradicting its own reporter’s story a few pages earlier on how brittle and unaccountable Newsom has been behaving. If the mayor had announced he was taking some time off to deal with his problems, then the Ex editorial might have a point. After all, Newsom clearly has some problems and it can’t be easy dealing with a pack of reporters who have questions that he’s not willing to answer. But Newsom wants to stay on the job, and that job is a difficult one that entails dealing with the media and the Board of Supervisors. Newsom refuses to answer legitimate questions, but its the job of journalists to keep asking them until he does, and the job of supervisors to help lead this city. While the Ex editorial got it embarrassingly wrong, the Chron editorial was right on. This mayor has an obligation to engage with supervisors and the media, and his scripted and controlled town hall meetings, like the one planned for this Saturday in Bayview, don’t count. We deserve an honest, engaged, and accountable mayor. He chose the job, and now he chose to remain in that job without taking any time off and to run for reelection. Newsom’s problems are of his own making, and he’s making them worse by behaving as if he deserves a free pass.
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Don’t cry for Newsom
Newsom’s dodge
By Chris Albon
Mayor Gavin Newsom is still dodging questions about his affair with his campaign manager’s wife and his alcohol problem, even as masses of reporters show up at his public appearances, such as today’s event touting a PG&E program.
The small press conference at the Academy of Art University on San Francisco’s new $11.5 million Energy Watch program, sponsored primarily by PG&E, was Newsom’s first event since he announced yesterday that he was seeking treatment for alcohol abuse at Delancey Street Foundation.
Newsom was 15 minutes late and a small crowd of reporters were anxiously loitering and watcing every Lincoln Town car that crept through lunchtime traffic. When the limo finally arrived, Newsom locked in a smile, looked forward, and walked in the building to PG&E’s display table of high-tech light bulbs.
The mood was tense and the event’s organizers and the mayor’s staff seemed skeptical that the media was there to get information on the plan to distribute more energy efficient light bulbs to small businesses.
“I know many of you are here because you care so deeply about climate change,” was how Jared Blumenfeld, director of the San Francisco department of the environment, expressed his cynicism.
When Blumenfeld introduced Newsom to speak, the room was awkwardly quiet. No one applauded.
“Thank you everyone, for the applause,” Newsom said. Only then did the small crowd applaud.
After his speech on the new plan, the mayor did take questions, but he was not going to dive into the affair or his alcohol problem.
“Any more questions,” Newsom asked adding, “on this issue?” before it was too late.
As the mayor walked out, I thought it a perfectly appropriate and respectful question to ask the mayor “if there was going to be a time when he would take questions on his alcoholism or his affair,” but apparently he didn’t agree.
“You’ve taken liberty with the question,” he said.
I took that as a “no.” Maybe I should have asked why a mayor who purports to support public power was helping to prop up PG&E’s aggressive greenwashing efforts. Next time.
Into the void
By Steven T. Jones
Mayor Gavin Newsom has refused to take any questions about his affair or drinking problem — and we don’t intend to turn to his press secretary for answers anymore — so I called his campaign spokesperson Eric Jaye this afternoon to pose a couple questions and let him know that we expect to pose a few more directly to Newsom, whether or not he wants to answer them. Luckily, we’re patient and we buy our ink by the barrel, so we’re in no hurry.
Jaye said the reports that Alex Tourk is still being paid by the campaign (potentially a violation of campaign finance laws) is not accurate. And he said Ruby Tourk never received any payments either. “There have been no payments whatsoever to anyone (connected to the scandals) for anything. We won’t do anything until three attorneys sign off on it,” he told us. “We don’t want to compound an error in judgment by making a campaign finance error.” But Jaye did say the campaign feels an obligation to help Tourk make ends meet until he can find a new job, a task that he expects to have good legal advice on in the next day or two. “He’s a great guy who doesn’t deserve any of this…We don’t right now know how to pay him or if we can through the campaign.”
The other big question was how Newsom can expect to seriously deal with his alcohol and other personal problems while reengaging with his job as mayor and standing for reelection. No surprise that Jaye feels like Newsom is up to it, but he did say the campaign comes last on that list: “The priority is for Gavin Newsom to do what he has to do to be a better mayor and be a better person…In the scheme of things, the campaign comes after that.”
Does that mean that the campaign could get squeezed out once Newsom learns about what kind of program he’ll face at Delancey Street Foundation and if the job of being mayor is made all the tougher by his recent scandals and his handling of them? Might Newsom not run? Jaye categorically rejected the idea that Newsom might not run, noting that he might have less time to personally campaign, but the campaign will move forward anyway. “Absolutely he’s running to reelection and he’s going to run a successful campaign.”
The ick factor
By Steven T. Jones
There are lots of icky aspects to Mayor Newsom’s sex scandal, most not actually involving the sex which, lets face it, involved two hot young people. No, the icky parts deal with the betrayal of a close friend, the reckless disregard for his public responsibilities, and what it says about Newsom’s character. And for me, someone who first heard the rumors early last year, one of my big “what a jerk!” moments came last June when the mayor-appointed Taxi Commission sacked the mayor’s hand-picked director, Heidi Machen, and the Chron asked Newsom to comment on the embarrassing political gaffe. What did he do? He actually blamed Ruby Tourk, the appointments secretary who he had been sleeping with and who was off in rehab dealing with the aftermath of the affair and her substance abuse issues. What kind of person does that? Probably someone who needs more intensive counseling than it sounds like he intends to seek as he continues to run the city and run for reelection.
On a lighter note (maybe)
By Tim Redmond
I still wonder if our mayor is really an android. A Soong-type android.
I mean, Data had some problems of his own when he hit the Polywater.
What’s the cop union pissed about now?
By G.W. Schulz
Welcome to another edition of “What’s the cop union pissed about now?” where we summarize the open contempt and paranoia filling the POA Journal, the official publication of the San Francisco Police Officers Association, which leads each month with a generally aimless yet sometimes hilarious diatribe on somebody or something in the city from the union’s outspoken president Gary Delagnes.
The mayor seeks “counseling”
By Tim Redmond
So Gavin Newsom admits he has a drinking problem and is going to get counseling. Good for him. I hope he joins AA, goes to meetings, takes it seriously and cleans himself up. If he really has an alcohol problem, it won’t be easy, and he deserves all the support he can get.
But frankly, his brand of treatment sounds a bit weak. He’s not going into residential rehab; he’s not giving up any of his duties. He’s going to get some help from Mimi Silbert at Delancey Street, and even she is a bit shakey about what’s going on, according to the Chron:
“It’s true,” Silbert said. “I don’t know if I would use the word ‘counseling,’ but I will be helping the mayor.”
I wish him luck, and I really mean it. I have had plenty of alcoholic friends, one of whom died of it, and it’s no joke. But if all he’s going to do is quit drinking and call Mimi Silbert every now and then, well, he really didn’t need to make a big deal of it, and hold a staff meeting and tell everyone. Again: He’s not going into rehab and isn’t planning to miss any work. And if, as his campaign consultant Eric Jaye says, Newsom isn’t blaming the alcohol for his bad behavior, then why can’t he just do it quietly? Why the big announcement?
Well, because claiming a drinking problem and “seeking treatment” is a great excuse for a politician who’s been caught in a sex scandal.
I hate to be a cynic, but I’m reminded of Bill Clinton telling the nation that he was seeking spiritual counseling — from Jesse Jackson — after the Monica Lewinsky affair.
(SFist had the great line:
We also wonder if he’ll do AA like Ruby did and so have to confess to everyone who he has wronged. Imagine that press conference.)
JOSH’S 169th DAY
by Amanda Witherell
Well, it’s not exactly cause for celebration, but Tuesday, February 6 will be Josh Wolf’s 169th day in jail and he’ll now be known as the journalist with the longest record of incarceration for contempt in US history. There’s a press conference at noon on the steps of City Hall and speakers include Assemblymember Mark Leno, Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, journalist Sarah Olson who just shed her own prison duds, and filmmaker Kevin Epps, as well as various first amendment lawyers and media advocates.
The real party is Tuesday night at 8 pm at House of Shields at 39 New Montgomery Street. MAP It’s a benny to raise funds for Wolf and it’s sure to be a good time. (At the last one they gave out excellent “Journalism is not a crime!” Free Josh t-shirts when you donated $15. Totally worth it.)
Fascinating tidbits
By Tim Redmond
From the what-did-they-know-and-when-did-they-know-it department:
Fog City Journal reported friday that the folks at that online pub had asked Ruby Tourk in December about the rumors of her affair with the mayor. A short excerpt:
When we asked Ms. Tourk in early December about the deafening whispers, she denied everything and clammed up. She became incensed and told the mayor’s inner circle.
That’s when Luke Thomas, Editor-in-Chief of Fog City Journal, got a hostile phone call from Eric Jaye – Newsom’s campaign strategist – within minutes of Thomas speaking with Ms. Tourk seeking comment on the alleged affair. Jaye threatened Thomas with a libel/slander lawsuit if he published anything on the matter. It was like begging for the term “Rubygate.”
Well, that’s odd: Eric Jaye is a spinmeister not above twisting the truth to protect his candidates, but he’s not a fool — and he knows as well as I do that truth is an absolute defense against libel (and that libel suits in these types of situations tend to be even messier than the original mess). So what was that all about?
I called Jaye and he told me that the FCJ report was absoutely true: He did call Thomas and threaten legal action. Why? “Because Ruby Tourk called me and told me that they were going to publish a story about her having an affair with the mayor, and that it wasn’t true, and she needed my help. She’s a good friend, and when people threaten my friends, I react.”
So if Jaye is telling me the truth, back in early December — remember, this is only a couple of months ago — Ruby Tourk was still denying the affair, and Jaye, one of the more sophisticated and experienced political consultants in town, was buying her line.
By then, I can tell you from personal experience, the story was all over City Hall. I wasn’t going to put it in the paper (not our kind of story anyway, and we don’t print this sort of rumor), but almost everyone I talked to knew about it and they all said it was bound to come out soon.
Jaye must have heard the rumors, too, and if he didn’t talk to the mayor about them (and about how to respond) he should be fired; watching the mayor’s (political) ass is his job, and he gets paid quite well for it. Which suggests that either (a) Ruby Tourk was in fact still denying the affair two months ago, and so was the mayor, and Jaye and others in the inner Newsom circle really didn’t think it was true, or allowed themselves to be convinced that it wasn’t true — in which case Newsom lied directly to his closest political advisors, which is pretty damn dumb, or (b) there has been a lot more spin and orchestration going on here than anyone in the press or the Mayor’s Office has acknowledged.
Now THIS is funny
By Tim Redmond
Take a deep breath,everyone
By Tim Redmond
Our editorial on this whole mess is here
“Suturb, ut te”
By Sarah Phelan
“Eturb, ut te” is “Et tu, Brutus” spelled backwards.
As such it seems a fittingly ass-backwards phrase to sum up the dynamics of the Newsom affair, which is so Shakespearian in terms of the lust, the lies and the betrayals, which ultimately led to yesterday’s potentially career-shattering revelations, yet seems so ass-backwards in so many ways. Very very suturbing.
Newsom’s other Peter problem
By Steven T. Jones
At the end of yesterday’s sex scandal whirlwind, I finally got a chance to talk with Newsom press secretary Peter Ragone about the scandal that got pushed aside by the larger scandal: Ragone being caught using pseudonyms in online posts and then lying to cover it up. Contrary to how this has been cast by the Chronicle and KCBS, Ragone has not truly owned up to what he did or shown any signs of wanting to restore his damaged credibility — something he’ll surely need as he tries to manage the other scandal and help Newsom re-engage with the public and the Board of Supervisors.
Newsom’s apology
By Steven T. Jones
There were lots of different ways that Gavin Newsom could have reacted to news that he was having sex with an at-will employee who was also married to his close friend and top adviser, but almost all of them involved an apology. Here’s what he chose to say this morning, in its entirety, followed by why I think he has fallen short and sown the seeds for dragging out this scandal longer than necessary:
“Thank you for coming here on such short notice. I want to make it clear that everything you’ve heard and read is true and I’m deeply sorry about that. I’ve hurt someone I care deeply about, Alex Tourk and his friends and family, and that is something I have to live with and something that I’m deeply sorry for. I am also sorry that I’ve let the people of San Francisco down. They expect a lot of their mayor and my personal lapse of judgment aside, I am committed to restoring their trust and confidence and will work very hard in the coming months to make sure the business of running this city is framed appropriately. I also want to extend a personal apology to everyone in our administration, to my staff who I just met with, to my friends and my family members. I am deeply sorry and I am accountable for what has occurred and have now begun the process of reconciling it and will now begin working aggressively to advance our agenda in this city and to work hard to build again the trust, to restore the trust, that the people of San Francisco have afforded me. I appreciate everyone taking the time to be here today. Thank you very much.”
It’s Getting Hot in Here
It’s Getting Hot in Here
Sarah Phelan
Hours before all hell broke loose over at City hall over news that he’d been having an affair, Mayor Gavin Newsom showed up at the SFPUC’s Climate Change summit to endorse long overdue efforts to combat global warming.
“God’s delays are God’s denials,” began Newsom, blissfully unaware that his former appointments secretary Roby Rippey-Tourk was about to confess to her husband Alex Tourk about the affair, and that Tourk would immediately confront the mayor–and resign from his post as Newsom’s campaign manager. Ouch.
Looking chill in his trademark ice-blue tie, Newsom remarked that there had been no snow in the Alps during his recent trip to Davos, Switzerland, little suspecting that he’d be quite so red-faced by the end of the day.
In addressing climate change today, observed Newsom, “we’re burdened with mistakes from the past,” adding that this past, and not just the future, must be part of “the next narrative.”
Expressing enthusiasm for tidal wave and solar power, and efforts to measure where we’re at with our carbon emissions’ levels , the Gavsta wrapped up saying, “We’re willing to take great risks in San Francisco.”
And then Newsom was gone, little guessing that while water managers heard incontrovertible evidence that global temperatures and sea levels are rising, bringing a host of nasty side effects and consequences, he’d be finding himself up to his neck in political and emotional hot water as a result of his own past denials and risk takings. Double Ouch.
An actual issue
By Tim Redmond
I don’t care about the mayor’s sex life. Frankly, I’d rather not think about it. If he had an affair with a good friend’s wife, that’s between them. Makes him look like a jerk, but whatever.
There is, however, a more serious issue here, which is that Ruby Tourk was Newsom’s employee. An at-will employee who could be fired at any time, at the mayor’s call. That’s why the city may well get sued here, and why this is really kind of a problem.
It really was, to quote the mayor, a lapse in judgment for the chief executive of a major city. Big time.
No joy
By Steven T. Jones
Contrary to the demented hopes of conservative ideologues like the Examiner’s Ken Garcia, there is no joy on the left over the sordid sex scandal that has now engulfed Mayor Gavin Newsom. Sure, it opens up this year’s mayor’s race and illustrates some of the character flaws of Newsom’s administration, which have manifested themselves in how he conducts himself professionally, not just personally. But nobody’s happy to see this, not the Guardian (which has also heard these rumors for the last six months but couldn’t confirm the story enough to print it) nor the politicians and activists on the left. Several of them happened to be gathered last night when the news hit, and I can tell you there was no glee in that room. Sup. Chris Daly’s public comments have been respectful and reserved and in private, he genuinely felt bad for Alex Tourk. Everybody did. Matt Gonzalez, who has been rumored to be considering a run for mayor, spent more time considering how this incident places City Hall in a bad light and in legal jeopardy than he did calculating his own prospects. And my sweetie Alix Rosenthal, who is president of the National Women’s Political Caucus, and the other women in the room are bracing for attempts to inappropriately delve into Ruby Tourk’s private life and are ready to fight back if Newsom’s people or their proxies go that route.
In the coming days or weeks, after the shock of this wears off and it becomes acceptable to make jokes or calculate its political implications, we’ll rejoin the battle for this city’s soul and actively try to help point the way forward from here. But today, we’re all just shaking our heads.
The numbers game
By G.W. Schulz
The police department sent out a press release earlier today complaining about an Examiner article from last Friday highlighting the city’s dismal homicide arrest rate. The department’s press office wants you to know that the article appears to have relied exclusively on statistics from a state criminal justice Web site.
First of all, here’s what they had to say:
“The statistics as presented in the article did not include many homicide arrests. For example, they do not reflect the recently much publicized federal gang indictments for murder … The department does not believe the statistics as presented in the article were intentionally misleading, but we believe that it is important to provide accurate data to set the record straight. The department has asked the Examiner to correct these errors to ensure that the public’s perception of our efforts in violence reduction [are] not undermined.”
Well isn’t that sweet. The department just wants clean numbers. That’s all. The problem is, their numbers don’t inspire much faith.
Sad…
by Amanda Witherell
Molly Ivins, the great political columnist, ever sharp with the pen and the wit, has passed away. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1999, and it got the best of her today. The left has lost a real trooper.
Newsom’s Bill Clinton
By Tim Redmond
All I can say is, think of how all the people who invested all this time and money into Gavin Newsom, the politician, must feel.
The tawdry tale was bound to come out, and it’s kind of sad; it really speaks to the guy’s judgement.
More fallout?
By Steven T. Jones
Now comes word that Alex Tourk has resigned as the campaign manager for Newsom’s reelection. For “personal reasons.” Yeah right. Does this have something to do with Newsom standing by Ragone, again, just as he did when he let his old chief of staff Steve Kawa resign after a power struggle with Ragone? Or was it something that happened while Newsom was in the Swiss Alps? Or maybe it was actually “personal reasons” associated with some nasty and persistent rumors that have floated through City Hall? Who knows? Whatever it was, we’ll all probably have to find out for ourselves rather than count on Newsom’s people for the straight scoop.
Ragone comes clean? Not yet.
By Steven T. Jones
According to KCBS radio, mayoral flack Peter Ragone has finally admitted to both posting on SFist and other blogs under a false name and lying to reporters about the existence of his imaginary friend, John Nelson. Newsom, who just returned from 10 days in Switzerland, reportedly expressed his displeasure with Ragone, but downplayed the incident.
Apparently, both men think that’s the end of this, but it isn’t. I had an appointment with Ragone scheduled for 4 p.m. today, but he has pushed that back to tomorrow. I’ll be curious what he has to say, and what “lessons” he’s learned, as he obliquely told the Chron. He directly lied to me and other journalists, a lie that KGO-TV broadcast the other night. Ragone needs to issue a public apology, he needs to directly apologize to me and others, then he needs to explain how the incident and other recent offenses have changed him and what he intends to do to restore his damaged credibility. Until he does that, none of us should believe anything that we hear from the Mayor’s Office.
Skateparks revisited; someone tell the mayor it’s not a ‘backslide’ 180
By G.W. Schulz
Got a call this morning from Rich Hillis, a deputy in the Mayor’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development. He was responding to a blog entry we posted last night pointing out that the city has made lots of promises in recent years about constructing new skateparks within the city, an inexpensive gesture any city can make for providing kids with something to do. (Our original post contains plenty of links explaining where skatepark construction is in San Francisco right now.)