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(10-30) 15:49 PDT SAN FRANCISCO —
Lacking both money and political momentum, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom withdrew from the California governor’s race today.
"With a young family and responsibilities at City Hall, I have found it impossible to commit the time required to complete this effort the way it needs to – and should be – done," Newsom said in a statement.
"This is not an easy decision," he said. "But it is one made with the best intentions for my wife, my daughter, the residents of the city and county of San Francisco, and California Democrats."
Newsom’s withdrawal leaves state Attorney General Jerry Brown, who has yet to declare his candidacy, as the lone major Democrat in the 2010 race.
8 Comments
Brown better sign single payer into law or I’m going to be pissed.
You got that right, he better and we should start on him BRIGHT AND EARLY ON MONDAY and get it on tape, writing, something. It won’t be hard to beat Whitman but we need him to get WAY more Progressive than his last go around and yes finally admit that Prop 13 put us down this road and how we need to retool this State.
We need continue to lead the charge as America’s Progressive Avant Guard State!
We can LEAD by example – SINGLE PAYER DONE RIGHT
HIGH SPEED RAIL from San Fran to San Diego
Leader In Alternative Energy
Expansion of BAR and LA Metro Rail
Let’s do this Shhh right!
You and what army?’
Politicians don’t do shit unless they have a reason to.
:-(
Sad. I think he would have been a good Governor. In person he is great.
I never understood the affection many American gays have for Gavin — his marriage stunt galvanized the Rove base and let more than 20 states to declare my brothers and sisters second-class citizens, enshrining this status in their constitutions in 2004. I don’t agree that Gavin cost John Kerry the presidency (DiFi’s “too much, too soon, too fast”) but the religious right did turn out to vote for marriage amendments throughout Holy America.
And that will take a LOT of undoing.
Gavin Newsom’s spurious order to allow same sex marriage was the first link in a chain of events that led to Prop 8, just like Clinton’s gays in the military fiasco. This is what happens when LGBT allow hets to set our agenda.
If one buys the argument that Ralph Nader “spoiled” in 2000, then one cannot deny that Gavin Newsom provided the George W. Bush with the edge they needed to win in 2004. I don’t by the premise, but there are many who do.
The reason why Newsom legalized same sex marriage in Feb 2004, three months after the Dec 2003 runoff, was to consolidate his position, having only won the election by 15,000 votes against a grass roots mobilized progressive candidate even though outspending us 10:1. One affluent whiter area where Newsom did especially poorly was District Eight, the predominantly gay neighborhoods surrounding the Castro where Gonzalez beat Newsom 56/44. So in order to feast upon the corpse of his vanquished opponent, Gonzalez had run supporting same sex marriage, Newsom was noncommittal, Newsom did the deed in 2004. District Eight, formerly a reliable progressive bastion but recently somewhat heterosexualized and gentrified, has been his power base in defeating what progressive ballot initiatives he could.
When Newsom was a supervisor, he was an okay moderate/conservative. His staff was personable as was he.
And for the first year of his mayoralty, he demonstrated no aversion to cooperation where possible.
But in December, 2005, progressive supervisors were moving to restrict parking in new downtown high rise buildings that are well served by transit. Corporate and development power brokers were having none of it. Led by the late Donald Fisher, who thought the parking space was the highest form of modern art, the corporate titans of San Francisco called Newsom to a meeting in his office and read him the riot act, laying down the law. From that point forward, Newsom has been a perfect prick, proposing few initiatives of substance, the ones he did were to build a power base of patronage. He spent most of his time issuing fluffy press releases and vetoing progressive initiatives.
Gavin Newsom is such a self centered narcissist who never had to work a day in his life for anything, that he really couldn’t give a shit about the consequences of his actions, whether same sex marriage, breaking up the Tourke’s marriage, currying favor with motorists instead of investing in transit, blocking affordable housing initiatives, the list goes on and on. Hopefully having a kid will change him.
Rumors are that the sleazebag is poised to jump into the Lieutenant Governor’s race as some sort of frat boy’s consolation prize. Let’s hope that an inanimate carbon rod beats Newsom in the primary.
Does this mean DiFi gets in?
How would Blum make more money, by having Feinstein’s fingers in the CIA or with her letting contracts as Governor?