Gavin Newsom

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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 Democrat.

Newsom, a fifth-generation San Franciscan, is the great-grandson of Thomas Addis, a pioneer scientist in the field of nephrology. He was born in San Francisco, and at age ten moved with his mother to Marin County, where he attended high school. Newsom attended Santa Clara University on a partial baseball scholarship; he graduated in 1989 with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science.

In December 2001, Newsom married Kimberly Guilfoyle Newsom, 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." He is currently dating Greek actress Sofia Milos.

Gavin Newsom's first taste of public office came in 1996 when he was appointed President of San Francisco's Parking and Traffic Commission. Later in 1996, he was appointed to a vacant seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Voters re-elected him to the Board of Supervisors in 1998, 2000 and 2002. He 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.

Newsom was elected mayor 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. Image:StoneNewsom.jpg.JPG 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 [1],[2]. Implementation of Care Not Cash began on July 1, 2004. During his tenure Newsom has been a popular mayor in San Francisco with approval ratings hovering in the 80-percent range (making him one of the most popular major US elected officials).

Newsom gained international attention, and attracted controversy, in February 2004 when he issued a directive for the city-county to start issuing same-sex couples marriage licenses. Newsom claimed the California Constitution's equal protection clause as his authority to do so. From February 12 until March 11, when the weddings were stopped by the California Supreme Court, about 4,000 same-sex couples were issued marriage licenses in San Francisco.

Newsom has focused city resources on impoverished disticts 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 and fire chief. As part of his Care Not Cash initiative, 5,000 more homeless were given permanent shelter in the city.

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.

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