Enough of Gavin Newsom’s Sex Capades

While the Newsom camp tries to minimize the political damage caused by the Mayor’s affair with his Deputy Chief of Staff’s wife, this is not the typical political sex scandal. In fact, of all the married women that the Mayor could have hooked up with, the most political damaging dalliance would be with the wife of the man who worked tirelessly to elect him in 2003, whose Project Homeless Connect put the Mayor in the national spotlight, and who is revered by the grassroots activists who represent the heart of Newsom’s political base. There is no escaping the mental image of the loyal and devoted Tourk burning the midnight oil to benefit a Mayor who was out having relations with his wife. Many politicians have overcome sex scandals, but this is about loyalty, and how voters assess the character of a Mayor who knowingly engaged in the private and public humiliation of a devoted ally.

As the Newsom sex scandal becomes the talk of the city, many are analogizing this to the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal and other sexual affairs by married politicians. But the facts already make this scandal different, and when additional facts and details come out in the days ahead---and they will---the Mayor’s image will take an even bigger hit.

The greatest currency for a politician is loyalty. Money is critical, but a politician who cannot command the loyalty of their base will not have a successful career.

As much as Newsom’s huge financial advantage brought him victory in the 2003 Mayor’s race, he would not have won without his mass volunteer base (assembled and directed by Alex Tourk and Jim Ross). Anecdotal evidence indicates that many of these volunteers are loyal to Tourk, and now will not be volunteering for Mayor Newsom’s re-election campaign.

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Few had heard of Benefit magazine until January 31st, when staff reporter Ruby Rippey-Tourk confessed to her husband that she had an affair with Mayor Gavin Newsom. After leaving the Mayor’s Office last year, Rippey-Tourk went to work for the magazine – a glossy periodical about charitable giving by San Francisco’s cultural elite. Edited by Newsom ally Tim Gaskin, the magazine was founded a year before his re-election – with the apparent purpose to give him positive press coverage and jobs for his ex-girlfriends. The first issue of Benefit had a front-page puff piece on Newsom (calling him the “Charity Kid”), while Rippey-Tourk and Newsom’s 20-year-old ex-girlfriend Brittanie Mountz have both secured employment at the magazine. The magazine has also helped CitiApartments, San Francisco’s notorious landlord currently being sued by the City Attorney, improve their public image as well.

The first issue of Benefits (published in October-November 2006) had a front-page article called “Why Gavin Gives,” describing the Mayor in glowing terms his long life of charitable giving. Just to get a flavor of the article, take a look at its first two paragraphs:

His political aspirations and all-American good looks, not to mention his family’s Getty affiliation, make it easy for anyone who doesn’t know Gavin Newsom personally to question his motives.

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"I want to make clear,” said Mayor Gavin Newsom at yesterday’s press conference, “that everything you have heard and read is true and I'm deeply sorry about that. I have hurt someone I care deeply about, Alex Tourk, his friends and family, and that is something I have to live with, and something that I am deeply sorry for." Newsom then pledged to redeem his image as Mayor, and walked out of the press conference without answering any questions. But with all the rumors about the extent of his affair with Ruby Rippey-Tourk, it was unclear what Newsom was really admitting to.

What does “everything you have heard and read” really encompass? In August 1998, when President Clinton admitted his affair with Monica Lewinsky, he simply said that he had a “relationship with Miss Lewinsky that was not appropriate.” That was vague enough to admit that he had an affair – without feeding into possible implications of what that affair really encompassed. The gossip around town is that there is more than meets the eye in this case – and if “everything you have heard” is true, Newsom could be in serious legal trouble.

This story is not newsworthy because it is a “sex scandal” – and it’s not even just an issue that Newsom was having an affair with his campaign manager’s wife. These facts may make the Mayor a person of questionable character and a disloyal friend, but it’s certainly not illegal. No, the real concern here is that Ruby Rippey-Tourk was working for the Mayor at the time – when she was his appointments secretary. In other words, he was having an affair with one of his subordinates.

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