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Newsom enters outpatient alcohol rehab
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Mayor Gavin Newsom serves as guest bartender during a New Year’s Eve campaign fundraiser.
SAN FRANCISCO (Map, News) - Mayor Gavin Newsom dropped the second public bombshell in a week Monday afternoon when he said he has entered an outpatient rehabilitation program to address a second issue that has long been rumored at City Hall — alcohol abuse.
Plagued by questions regarding the role of alcohol in his life since he admitted four days ago to having an affair with a former staffer, Ruby Rippey-Tourk, the wife of longtime aide and former campaign manager Alex Tourk, Newsom said Monday that it was not an excuse for “my personal lapses in judgment.”
After a weekend of discussions with family and friends, Newsom said he decided that “I will be a better person without alcohol in my life” and entered an outpatient program at Delancey Street Foundation — a nationally recognized San Francisco organization that serves substance abusers and former felons.
Newsom’s latest confession was announced by his press office late Monday afternoon, a few hours after Supervisor Jake McGoldrick called for the mayor’s resignation, on grounds that he “lacks the moral fiber to be a leader in this city.”
“If he was guided by his conscience rather than his political position, he would have resigned already,” McGoldrick added.
Newsom said the treatment would not interfere with his duties and responsibilities as mayor.
The 39-year-old mayor admitted to the sexual relationship with Rippey-Tourk, 34, his former appointments secretary, on Thursday after media reports surfaced that Tourk, 35, resigned after confronting Newsom about the affair. Rippey-Tourk is also receiving counseling for alcohol and substance abuse and reportedly admitted the affair to Tourk as part of her rehabilitation.
Since going through a very public divorce 18 months ago from Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle, Newsom’s dating choices — including a movie star who practices Scientology and a 20-year-old hostess caught with a cocktail in her hand while at a charity event with the mayor — have raised eyebrows.
Tongues have also wagged as frequent reports surfaced that the mayor spends his evenings in various states of intoxication at San Francisco establishments, including Kokkari Estiatorio Restaurant in the Financial District, the Brazenhead in the Marina, Tosca Café in North Beach and restaurants once owned by Newsom, including the Balboa Café and PlumpJack.
Supervisor Ed Jew told The Examiner that he was surprised to see Newsom “slightly intoxicated” one night last December when both politicians arrived at a hospital after a police officer was fatally wounded in the line of duty.
Newsom’s confession that alcohol had become a problem in his life was not news to members of the media who — directly after the mayor’s news conference about the affair — swarmed around his press secretary, Peter Ragone, and repeatedly asked if the sexual indiscretion was related to a drinking problem — an accusation that Ragone repeatedly denied.
Newsom has often stated how hard a job he finds being mayor, admitting at one point that he was considering not running for re-election. He also has complained that his public persona has made it increasingly difficult to date and maintain a personal life, often growing frustrated when questioned about his dating life.
“I’ll be sitting having dinner and then you’re dating someone you’ve never even kissed, and now she’s your girlfriend,” Newsom told The Examiner in January.
During the same interview he said his life lacked balance, saying “it was very difficult to find.” He said going to the movies had become one of favorite pastimes because he can remain anonymous.
City Hall insiders and political observers have repeatedly described Newsom as lonely, with few friends and a hectic 15-hour-a-day schedule.
“He’s terribly lonely, the job’s over his head, his wife left him and he’s drinking,” said one political observer who wanted to remain anonymous. “I think we’ve all known someone who’s been there.”
Delancey Street’s well-known founder, Mimi Silbert, said Newsom had called her on Saturday afternoon to discuss his desire to stop drinking and they talked for several hours. She bristled at the suggestion that Newsom wasn’t serious about getting sober.
“I would never have agreed to be the person that would help him if I thought we were just being used for anything political,” said Silbert, who said she’s known Newsom for nearly 20 years. “It was clear to me that he was very serious.”
Want to know more about City Hall insiders' reaction to Newsom's announcement? See Critics angry, not shocked by Newsom disclosure.
Mayor ponders severance for Tourk
Mayor Gavin Newsom’s campaign team is investigating whether they can use campaign contributions to offer severance pay to Newsom’s former campaign manager — who quit after learning the mayor had an affair with his wife.
Alex Tourk, 35, stepped into the role of Newsom’s re-election campaign manager in September, but prior to that worked as the mayor’s deputy chief of staff and was, by all accounts, considered to be Newsom’s friend. On Thursday, Newsom confessed to having an affair with Tourk’s wife, Ruby Rippey-Tourk, who also once worked in Newsom’s office as a secretary.
Rippey-Tourk, 34, had recently confessed the affair to her husband as part of a rehabilitation program she’s going through for alcohol and substance abuse. Tourk confronted the mayor on Wednesday of last week and quit the Newsom re-election campaign.
Newsom’s chief campaign strategist, Eric Jaye, said a campaign finance attorney is being consulted to confirm that Newsom’s campaign fund can be used to provide Tourk with some portion of his $180,000-a-year campaign manager’s salary as severance.
“He had to separate from the campaign through no fault of his own,” Jaye said, adding that Tourk deserved the most generous severance package possible. “We recognize that he has a family, he has a 2-year-old kid, we don't want to leave him hanging.”
Newsom walked away Monday morning from a reporter who asked him if he would be willing to pay Tourk’s severance from his own pocket.
“I’ve said everything I’m going to say,” said Newsom, who before the question, said he was taking “personal responsibility” for the affair.
Although he couldn’t comment on the specifics of this situation, an official with California’s Fair Political Practices Commission, Jon Matthews, said state law mandates that “expenditures of campaign funds must be reasonably related to a political, legislative or government purpose.”
Each day until voters go to the polls Nov. 6, The Examiner lays odds on local figures beating Mayor Gavin Newsom. Check out our exclusive blog: San Francisco's Next Mayor?
Comments from Examiner Readers
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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
242 agree | 217 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?
281 agree | 204 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.
278 agree | 218 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.
274 agree | 287 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.
272 agree | 229 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
newsom looks good he's a poser and SF is a poser town.
280 agree | 257 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
310 agree | 278 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.
316 agree | 287 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.
283 agree | 283 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.
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