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Newsom confirms affair
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Mayor Gavin Newsom
SAN FRANCISCO (Map, News) - Mayor Gavin Newsom confirmed today that he had an affair with the wife of his re-election campaign manager. “Everything that you heard and read is true and I am deeply sorry about that,” said Newsom in a 11:30 a.m. conference. “I hurt someone I care deeply about, Alex Tourk and his friends and his family, and that is something I have to live with and something I am deeply sorry for.”
Tourk, 35, Newsom’s campaign manager and former deputy chief of staff, resigned Wednesday after confronting Newsom regarding a relationship with his wife Ruby Rippey-Tourk.
Tourk, often credited as being a loyal and dedicated Newsom staff member, was in charge of Newsom’s first re-election campaign and then was appointed to Deputy Chief of Staff. He is credited for launching and implementing on of The City’s most successful homeless programs, Homeless Connect, which is now being replicated on a national level.
Rippey-Tourk worked as an appointment scheduler in Newsom’s office but left last year after allegedly entering a rehabilitation program. The relationship is said to have occurred some 18 months ago when Newsom was in the middle of divorce proceedings from his then-wife, Kimberly Guilfoyle.
Tourk’s resignation was announced Wednesday.
-- Staff report
Comments from Examiner Readers
4:08 PM MST on Fri., Aug. 10, 2007 re: "Newsom scandals can’t curb campaign cash"
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7:13 PM MST on Mon., Aug. 6, 2007
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P. Fitzgerald said:
Hey..."Myself for Mayor!" You mean to say you have never done anything wrong in your entire life? I get so tired of people pointing fingers at other people. You know, Sir, we all are human and we all make mistakes and I am quite certain that all of you have some skeletons in your closets that you keep hidden. It is usually the ones that point the fingers that do. Quit harping on Newsom's past...and that is PAST with a capital 'P' and get over it. He made amends and has moved on. If God can forgive him then I think you can too! You double-standard finger pointer, do-gooders, make me want to vomit. Go clean up your own side of the street and bless your brothers and sisters instead of being the judge and jury. It really sickens me when people are so quick to jump on the bandwagon and condemn those around them that fall prey to defects of character that we all walk around with. Go work on your own defects and ask yourself what would Gandi do when you feel like pointing finger
241 agree | 216 disagree
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Myself for Mayor said:
I've decided that I am going to run for mayor on a simple platform. 1. I am not a panderer. 2. I am not an alcoholic. 3. I am not an adulterer. Has our society's morals really deteriorated so much that we do not care that our elected officials maintain such disgraceful values?
279 agree | 203 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
'Eyed wide open', SF is a complex city? are you brain dead? just give each supv 1 billion dollars and we could elliminate the mayor and his staff and be better off.
276 agree | 217 disagree
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Eyed wide open said:
I can't think of any large accomplishment other than bringing to the forefront some very real humanitarian issues which took bravery and fortitude and keeping an idealistic but irresponsible board of supervisors in check, all with a certain dignity and decency. The opportunistic prudism of the Gonzales camp fooled nobody but the choir. It is certain Matt Gonzales would have done absolutely zero, other than poetry readings, lip service and running the city in to the ground financially, while stoned on pot 24/7 (all, of course, while closely following the precepts of the Christian right). The Matt Gonzales types would have been way over their head in an extremely important and complex city like S.F.. Thankfully the voters knew it then, and Matt knows it now.
273 agree | 286 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
The man is obviously planning to run for something beyond mayor at some point, most likely in '08 or '10. The kind of cash he's raising indicates the capacity to run at the very least a Congressional race; or perhaps one of California's statewide offices.
271 agree | 228 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
newsom looks good he's a poser and SF is a poser town.
279 agree | 256 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
please spare us the history rewrite. Newsom's drinking problem was merely an excuse for acting in a sleazy, despicable manner i.e. scumbag
309 agree | 277 disagree
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nobody said:
it's only because he's still young, people will overlook his mistakes. there's always the flip side, someone might contend with him, but so far, we haven't seen anybody in the fighting ring. he's a young person's game, city hall is not for the old heads anymore. he can have more illicit affairs and drink more vino than ever before, and he still might win. this is probably the strangest political scenery yet to date.
315 agree | 286 disagree
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Robert said:
This is one electiong i'm sitting out this time around. Newsom has disappointed me and i'm sure others. What has he done? I can't think of one accomplishment in almost 4 years in office.
282 agree | 282 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Newsom can't curb campaign cash? Well, why do you think the city's budget is $6.2 Billion this year? The contracts, jobs, Newsom has been doling out is translating easily to campaign cash contribution. Get a clue.
272 agree | 304 disagree
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