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Newsom scandals can’t curb campaign cash
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Mayor Gavin Newsom has a lot to smile about going into this November’s election.
SAN FRANCISCO (Map, News) - News of Mayor Gavin Newsom’s affair with his secretary, who was also the wife of his campaign manager, may have stopped the presses earlier this year, but the campaign cash kept rolling in.
To date, Newsom has raised just more than $1.5 million for his November 2007 re-election campaign — 26 percent less than the $2.1 million brought in during the same time period for his 2003 run for office. Campaign finance statements, which listed contributions received from January to June of this year, were made public this week.
Indeed, Newsom’s fundraising results seem to reveal that the double-whammy scandal that began on Feb. 1 of this year — when he admitted to a relationship with the wife of a top adviser, adding one week later that he had “problems with alcohol” — didn’t hurt his campaign momentum.
Although Newsom’s campaign posted one contribution on Feb. 1, no others are noted on the financial statements until Feb. 5, when money began pouring back in.
“There were a couple of days where we weren’t opening the mail, we were busy with other issues,” said Newsom’s current campaign manager, Eric Jaye, who added that in the days following the news of the affair, people who attended Newsom fundraisers were told that donations were not required.
This campaign could be considered significantly different than the last race, however, since Newsom is currently facing no formidable opposition. More than two dozen candidates have declared a desire to hold the executive office, but few have made big public splashes.
To date, the strongest competitor following Newsom, in terms of fundraising, is former Supervisor Tony Hall, who brought in more than $40,000, after announcing he was running in May.
Talk that former Board of Supervisors President Matt Gonzalez — who ran against Newsom in 2003 — has subsided after the Green Party member publicly stated this week that he would not run.
That Newsom has continued to raise funds may actually be the reason no one else has jumped into the race, said David McCuen, a professor of political science at Sonoma State University.
“You raise money to send a message to people [that] it’s business as usual. He’s as popular as he ever was,” McCuen said.
Jaye did not rule out the possibility of having to raise another $5.9 million, as Newsom did for the 2003 race — noting that in 1999, Supervisor Tom Ammiano was a last-minute write-in candidate who pushed incumbent Willie Brown into a run-off, and Gonzalez filed his candidacy on the last day possible for getting on the ballot in 2003. The filing deadline this year is Aug. 10.
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?
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4:08 PM MST on Fri., Aug. 10, 2007 re: "Newsom scandals can’t curb campaign cash"
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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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