SAN FRANCISCO (Map, News) - In a move observers say points to continuing higher-office ambitions, Mayor Gavin Newsom launched a new political Facebook page Friday — and signed up more than 1,000 new supporters over the weekend.

Newsom, who was first elected mayor in 2003 when he was 36 years old, has said that he is considering a run for the Democratic nomination to the governor’s race in 2010.

Newsom’s political consultant, Eric Jaye, said the purpose of the Facebook page and other Web-related venues, such as Second Life, an online virtual world in which Newsom has an avatar, was to converse with more residents.

“The goal is to reach San Franciscans and Californians interested in San Francisco so they’ll help him shape and adopt a bold policy agenda,” Jaye said.

Newsom launched his first Facebook page in June, but ran into a cyber-ceiling when his page reached the 5,000-friend limit several months ago, Jaye said.

A new page, created within the social networking site’s US Politics application, allows people to sign up as “supporters” of a candidate, instead of the “friends” label given to those who link to regular Facebook pages. The new site includes his previous 5,000 friends, so now Newsom is up to 6,106 supporters, placing him 33rd on a list of politicians using the popular social-networking site.

Facebook expanded its product line in November to allow the creation of political pages that can be partially viewed by the public without signing up for an account, said Matt Hicks, a spokesman for the company.

More than 500 politicians have Facebook pages, reaching more than 70 million active users, according to data from the Palo Alto-based social-networking site.

The new application also allows politicians to receive reports based on the online traffic to their page, said Hicks, including demographic and geographic information, and what types of profile elements the views click on while visiting the site.

Allan Hoffenblum, a Republican political consultant and publisher of the California Target Book, said it was another medium “to maximize voter contact” cheaply, which would be useful to Newsom in Southern California, where he is not known for much other than authorizing gay marriages in San Francisco in 2004.

“It’s a wise thing for him to do because it transcends borders,” Hoffenblum said. “People with ambitions tend to do ambitious things.”

Bob Mulholland, the chief spokesman for the California Democratic Party, compared political races to another sport.

“A person who wants to win a bike race — they’re biking every week,” Mulholland said. “It sounds like he’s biking everywhere.”

dsmith@examiner.com

Comments from Examiner Readers

11:47 AM MST on Tue., Apr. 22, 2008 re: "Newsom uses radio gig to move beyond City Hall"

Examiner Reader said:
The jerk completely forget that he was elected to focus on SF not "something much bigger than who�s up and who�s down at City Hall" Resign and start running for governor now and let us have someone to run SF.

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2:29 PM MST on Thu., Apr. 3, 2008 re: "Vacant city positions given the ax"

Examiner Reader said:
I had posted a comment regarding reducing the number of SF Board of Supervisors as a start. But somehow the post is no longer there. So here it is again. Eliminate some positions at the Board. there is no need for 11 Board members plus a mayor to run this City. And the excuse that SF is a "City/County" wont fly. We only need about 5 people to efectivly run this town.

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11:54 AM MST on Wed., Mar. 26, 2008 re: "Newsom mum about governor run"

Examiner Reader said:
Can one say Rebulicans? They will have a field day with this loser if he runs.

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12:24 PM MST on Tue., Feb. 26, 2008 re: "Newsom�s car vandalized"

Examiner Reader said:
Why no photo of the ex-con MORON who was arrested? Laughable. Never, never trust an ex-con.

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12:19 PM MST on Tue., Feb. 26, 2008 re: "More than one-fourth of mayor�s payroll funded by other departments"

Examiner Reader said:
We, the voters, need to develop & place on the ballot via an initiative some sort of State Constitutional mandate that funds paid into any City, County, or the State Treasury be used for specific budgets. The State until recently, as we all recall, had been diverting "transportation funds from transportation taxes" to NONtransportation budget items. i.e. funds diverted to the pork projects of slick and manipulative politicians. If the Mayor cannot do his job on his own, he should resign. The so called public "services" have obviously been damaged by taking funds from the departments w/o alerting the public.

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10:34 AM MST on Tue., Feb. 26, 2008 re: "Newsom�s car vandalized"

Examiner Reader said:
Well thanks to this article for telling everyone in the world where we can find Newsom's car at 9am. Let's hope there are more acts of vandalism.

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10:33 AM MST on Tue., Feb. 26, 2008 re: "More than one-fourth of mayor�s payroll funded by other departments"

Examiner Reader said:
When facing a 220 million dollar shortfall the mayor should be the first one to sacrifice and set a good example but obviously he just wants to put the blame some place else and call it politically motivated. Well gee, when the residents in your city are calling for you to set a good example and not hire your buddies to senior positions which pull money from already cash strapped programs I do not think that is politically motivated. Democrats are just as corrupt as Republicans.

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9:24 AM MST on Tue., Feb. 26, 2008 re: "More than one-fourth of mayor�s payroll funded by other departments"

Examiner Reader said:
So the price tag for a homeless czar is the same as paying 311 homeless CAAP recipients $59/mo for a year or 53 housed CAAP recipients $345/mo. Running guvmint like a bidness, huh?

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11:21 PM MST on Mon., Feb. 25, 2008 re: "More than one-fourth of mayor�s payroll funded by other departments"

Examiner Reader said:
Yep, I'm afraid we must live with the fact we put Mayor Newsom in office and must now endure this mayor for 4 more years.

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3:00 PM MST on Sun., Feb. 24, 2008 re: "More than one-fourth of mayor�s payroll funded by other departments"

fred said:
who is stupider -him or us for electing him in the first place? How do we get this idiot out of office?

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12:05 PM MST on Fri., Feb. 22, 2008 re: "More than one-fourth of mayor�s payroll funded by other departments"

Examiner Reader said:
These salaries are outrageous for government service.

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11:40 AM MST on Fri., Feb. 22, 2008 re: "More than one-fourth of mayor�s payroll funded by other departments"

Examiner Reader said:
Can't that Mayor do ANYthing himself?

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4:57 PM MST on Sat., Jan. 12, 2008 re: "Newsom�s car vandalized"

Examiner Reader said:
i saw the resulting arrest. There was some 'resistance' that's certain. And there were about ten cop cars and a couple unmarked ones all over the place. It was like they thought they'd caught a terrorist!!!! Go sfpd!!!

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2:06 AM MST on Sat., Jan. 12, 2008 re: "Newsom�s car vandalized"

Examiner Reader said:
But if the cops actually saw the person doing it like they did in this story I'll bet they would respond exactly the same way -- even if it had been the vehicle or home of any "anonymous taxpayer."

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8:44 AM MST on Fri., Jan. 11, 2008 re: "Newsom�s car vandalized"

Examiner Reader said:
The only reason the cops did anything is because this is Newsom's car. Had it been the vehicle or home of any anonymous taxpayer, the cops would have laughed at requests to investigate--do you think this is an episode of Dragnet or something?--and gone back to eating their donuts.

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11:53 PM MST on Thu., Jan. 10, 2008 re: "Newsom�s car vandalized"

Examiner Reader said:
It�s amazing how a story about a parolee vandalizing Newsom's car and resisting arrest devolves into people berating him for things that have nothing to do with the story, and embellishing it with expressions of jealousy about SF cloaked in disparaging comments. Of course if this happened to any of you it would be a huge issue and you�d be happy to see the guy arrested and charged with a felony.

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9:00 PM MST on Thu., Jan. 10, 2008 re: "Newsom�s car vandalized"

Examiner Reader said:
Mr. Burgos, who is probably a bi-polar street person needs an ACLU attorney who could plead the San Francisco twinkie defense previously used by Dan White. Frisco unfortunately has earned the reputation for being the weirdest city in America and not wholesome & family friendly. How sad.

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6:18 PM MST on Thu., Jan. 10, 2008 re: "Newsom�s car vandalized"

Examiner Reader said:
If the damage is over $400, it is a felony. This amount is a drop in the bucket and anyone who's had so much as parking lot dings can tell you what a body shop charges for repairs.

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10:54 AM MST on Thu., Jan. 10, 2008 re: "Man vandalizes Newsom�s car near apartment"

Examiner Reader said:
A felony for vandalism? Is that because it was Newsom's car? Welcome to the city.

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10:03 PM MST on Mon., Dec. 31, 2007 re: "Newsom gets engaged"

Examiner Reader said:
After Gavin spent all this time campaigning for same-sex marriage, why is he marrying a woman? If he thinks marrying another man is the same as marrying a woman, he should practice what he preaches...

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2:58 AM MST on Sun., Dec. 30, 2007 re: "Newsom pitches idea of an open office"

Examiner Reader said:
Settling "homeless" people in full-service centers is arguably a "different" approach to this on-going problem. I'm not sure how that necessarily equates to "courageous." Other cities/states were already in the forefront when it came to same-sex marriage before our mayor endorsed it. Our State Supreme Court invalidated the mayor's decision and will, if history proves true, line up against same-sex marriage, too. So it would seem while the mayor's decision might leave him with a black eye for not correctly reading the political winds in California, it likely ingratiated him to a considerable portion of the gay community, which is a major voting block in San Francisco. "courageous?" maybe, politicaly smart, absolutely.

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7:15 PM MST on Sat., Dec. 29, 2007 re: "Newsom pitches idea of an open office"

sickofrisco said:
I will give Newsom grudging respect for attempting to do take on the entrenched homeless advocacy establishment when he showed up. As far as pushing for same-sex marriage, that doesn't strike me as being especially "courageous" in a city where people think that being sexually confused elevates you to the status of "protected species"...

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10:21 AM MST on Sat., Dec. 29, 2007 re: "Newsom: Second term as daring as first"

James, San Francisco said:
Mayor Newsom's first term implemented the project for homeless that placed many of them in full-service residential centers. His first term was also marked by his courageous stand for same-sex marriage. Granted, both of these initiatives require a commitment for the long-term, which he has demonstrated. These were both daring moves and his first term can be therefore described as such.

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5:58 PM MST on Sun., Nov. 11, 2007 re: "Newsom: Second term as daring as first"

Examiner Reader said:
Mayor Newsom's first term was daring? How so?

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10:59 PM MST on Thu., Nov. 8, 2007 re: "Newsom: Second term as daring as first"

Examiner Reader said:
Who would want to be Mayor of Sin Fransico ,still a beautiful city run by no brainers. Newsence can keep it.

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