Gavin Newsom
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San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom |
Gavin Christopher Newsom (born
October 10,
1967) is the 42nd
Mayor of
San Francisco,
California. He was elected the city's mayor on
December 9,
2003, succeeding
Willie Brown. He is a member of the
Democratic Party.
Newsom was born to retired state
appeals court Judge
William Newsom and Tessa Menzies Newsom in San Francisco. His parents
divorced in 1972, and at age ten Newsom moved with his mother to
Marin County. A fourth-generation San Franciscan, Newsom is the maternal great-grandson of the Scotsman
Thomas Addis, a pioneer scientist in the field of
nephrology. Newsom's paternal great-grandfather immigrated to America from
Ireland in 1865. He is also a distant cousin of acclaimed singer/songwriter
Joanna Newsom.
Newsom attended high school in Marin County, and
Santa Clara University on a partial baseball scholarship, where he graduated in 1989 with a
Bachelor of Arts in
political science.
After graduation, with a loan from
Gordon Getty, he started the PlumpJack Wine Shop in 1992. The business eventually grew to a multi-million dollar empire with over 700 employees, including five restaurants, a
Napa winery, a hotel and ski resort, and two retail clothing stores.
In December 2001, Newsom married
Kimberly Guilfoyle, a legal analyst and commentator who previously appeared on television networks including
Court TV,
CNN, and
MSNBC, and who now hosts
The Lineup on
Fox News Channel. On
January 7,
2005 the couple jointly filed for divorce, citing "difficulties due to their careers on opposite coasts." The divorce is now final. After the divorce, he entered into a relationship with
Sofia Milos, but ended it in early 2006.
[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/05/28/BAGLSJ3NM11.DTL]In 1996, Newsom was appointed by Mayor
Willie Brown to a vacant seat on the Parking and Traffic Commission and was elected President of the Commission. Also in 1996, Newsom was appointed to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors for the Marina District (District 2). Voters re-elected him to the Board of Supervisors in 1998, 2000 and 2002.
As Supervisor, Newsom gained public attention for his role in advocating reform of the city's beleaguered
Municipal Railway (Muni). He sponsored a ballot measure from the transit riders group
Rescue Muni; a version of the measure was approved by voters in November 1999.
Following a tight runoff election, Newsom was elected mayor of the City and County of San Francisco in 2003. National figures from the Democratic Party, including
Bill Clinton and
Al Gore, campaigned on his behalf. He campaigned partly on a pledge to focus on the city's notorious
homeless problem, adopting much of the same agenda pursued by
Rudolph Giuliani in
New York City a decade earlier.
Throughout his tenure, Newsom has been a popular mayor, with approval ratings hovering in the 80 percent range, making him one of the most popular major US elected officials.
As Supervisor, the centerpiece of Newsom's reform package was a voter initiative called
Care Not Cash, which substituted direct aid in the form of rent vouchers, etc., for cash payments heretofore made to indigents under the state's
General Assistance program. Care Not Cash caused significant controversy in the city and its implementation was protested by numerous homeless rights advocates in San Francisco.
[http://www.sfbg.com/36/51/x_oped.html][http://www.indybay.org/news/2002/10/1535118.php] Implementation of Care Not Cash began on
July 1,
2004. As part of his Care Not Cash initiative, 5,000 more homeless people were given permanent shelter in the city, and as of
May 4,
2006 1,318 people have been placed into permanent housing with support.
Newsom has focused city resources on impoverished districts in
Bayview-Hunters Point on San Francisco's southeast side, often arriving there without notice to follow through on city programs. He extended the city-funded health insurance program, started under Mayor Brown, to young adults, a program that had been previously offered only to children. Newsom appointed San Francisco's first female police chief,
Heather Fong, and fire chief, Joanne Hayes-White.
On
October 27,
2004, during a strike by hotel workers on a dozen San Francisco hotels, Newsom joined
UNITE HERE union members on a picket line in front of the Westin St. Francis Hotel. He vowed that the city would boycott the hotels by not sponsoring city events in any of them until the hotels agreed to a contract with workers. The contract dispute remains unresolved.
In his budget proposal for fiscal year
2007-
2008, Newsom announced his intention to provide
universal health care for all city residents through the San Francisco Health Access Plan.
[http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-07-07-sf-health-plan_x.htm] If enacted by the
Board of Supervisors, the new law would make San Francisco only the second jurisdiction in the nation (after the state of
Massachusetts) to have such an initiative.
[http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1207599,00.html]Newsom's proposal has prompted
Oakland mayor-elect
Ron Dellums and
San Mateo County's Board of Supervisors to look into possibilities for providing their own taxpayer-subsidized health care.
[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/06/26/BAGM7JK9E21.DTL&hw=ron+dellums&sn=001&sc=1000][http://www.smdailyjournal.com/article_preview.php?id=60603]San Francisco's health care proposal may become a model for the country if implemented. The move may also boost Gavin Newsom's political career and help him run for higher office.
[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/07/02/MNGOQJO6OO1.DTL]Newsom gained international attention, and attracted controversy, in February 2004, when he issued a directive to the city-county clerk to issue marriage licenses to
same-sex couples. Newsom claimed the California Constitution's
equal protection clause as his authority to do so, and decided to perform the marriages after hearing
President Bush's
State of the Union address. From
February 12 until
March 11,
2004 (when the weddings were halted by the
California Supreme Court), about 4,000 same-sex couples were issued marriage licenses in San Francisco. On
August 12,
2004, the California Supreme Court voided all of these marriages.
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Official website of the Office of San Francisco mayor*
About Gavin Newsom – profile from SFGov
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"Gavin Newsom: The First Year" – from the
San Francisco Chronicle, January 2, 2005
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Profile of Gavin Newsom – from the
San Francisco Chronicle, December 7, 2003
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CityMayors profile*
From Modest Beginnings, Newsom Finds Connections for Business, Political Success – a portrait of Newsom in the December 7, 2003
San Francisco Chronicle.
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June 27, 2006 County to study universal health care
