Gavin's Greatest Gift

I had an interesting chat with Gavin Newsom today. After arriving late for the candidate forum in Jack Adams Hall at SF State, Mr. Newsom regaled us with what he sought to portray to us as a commanding vision for leading San Francisco. He spoke plaintiff, with vigor about his ability to cut through politics and get sides to agree. Interestingly, Newsom while coy and self-congratulatory in his assertion of this point, was actually being quite truthful. Indeed, the 36 year old maverick has succeeded in reaching beyond his bourgeois milieu to the ranks and files of the sub and unconnected. What’s more, Gavin has done this while appealing succinctly to the pet interests of his well-heeled own. Since his emergence as “mayor material,” he’s nary a step retreated from the bully pulpit of cracking down on the most desperate, and thus most bothersome, losers in the capitalist game of prosperity and destitution – the homeless.

What could be the first insightful thing that Gavin could give regarding that which he has the furthest distance from, a common bystander might ask? How could San Francisco’s version of Prince William offer anything useful at all in ways to remedy the predicaments of poverty and homelessness? After all, how many folks on the streets lost multiple properties and businesses before they became homeless? Of course, Newsom would never willingly answer these questions ingenuously. Newsom’s tack has been to wax intrepid over his gallant display of grit and “passion” for going where no governing man has gone before in approaching that problem. This strategy has achieved a modicum of success. Newsom is proud to be a candidate in the Schwarzenegger vein – a brazen candidate ready to rattle off detailed descriptions of measures that sound great, but are usually mischaracterized, exaggerated, or plain don’t exist. What’s been most effective for Gavin in this endeavor is the air of confidence that he exudes, knowing that it appeals to those who look up to those successful in business. I didn’t think that there were many of those people in San Francisco, but I guess in times of depression we’ll look to anyone who seems to still be doing well.

Supervisor and mayoral candidate, Matt Gonzalez has commented that his own ideas and intellectual acumen expose Gavin to be a lightweight in comparison. Gonzalez, while both highly educated and successful despite a life of poverty and lack of privilege, has also been amazingly successful. However, he’s done it working for the people as a defense lawyer and advocate. Thus far, Gonzalez has proven to be the anti-Gavin: insightful, thorough, and attentive to complexity. Newsom, while portraying himself to be similar, has proven to be only concerned with “what works.” Expedience and impudence are his trademarks.

How Newsom has become so steeped in these qualities should be of no surprise. Gavin, the son of former judge William Newsom, has been groomed his whole life to be the debonair magnate he has become. He’s had all the help he needs and then some, thanks to his pop’s connection to the Getty family. William Newsom, the manager of the Getty Family Trust, has been sure to distribute Getty-backed aid to Gavin whenever possible. From the purchase of his Maui estate, to the 10 of his 11 businesses in which Gordon Getty was the lead investor, Gavin Newsom is anything but a “self-made entrepreneur.” Ditto for his role in city government. Gavin only began his public service after his dad’s buddy, John Burton, convinced Willie Brown to appoint Gavin to a supervisor post in 1997. If not for the district elections which allowed him to represent the Marina and Pacific Heights districts, he probably wouldn’t have lasted long enough to launch his “care not cash” initiative last year.
Call me cynical, but it’s hard to imagine that Gavin, after amassing a sizable fortune as a property speculator and upscale restaurateur, suddenly found himself driven to serve the public out of benevolence and civic virtue. Yet, that’s exactly how he’s portrayed himself.

Do San Franciscans buy this shape shifting? My guess is not really, but Gavin has become excellent at deflecting criticism and confusing his detractors. Despite all that’s public record about his silver spoon privileges, he provokes second guesses about his publicized shortcomings. While this often amounts to outright lies and denial, Gavin clearly understands how to pass himself off as a misunderstood trooper who’s negative impacts are really just growing pains towards progress. When he’s not spinning revisionist history about his days of humility, working as a janitor and construction worker who then “suddenly decided to open a small wine store,” as he confessed in his speech today, Newsom is boldly denying commonly held facts, such as his ties to the Getty’s and his sudden liking to a living wage ordinance in SF. “I’ve always supported the living wage, I don’t know where you get these things,” he said Monday. Never mind that he only voted against it in 1999 and recently told the Chronicle he wasn’t inclined to support Prop. L. Newsom wants us to believe that’s all media hype, of which he’s unfairly a victim.
And this is perhaps Gavin’s greatest weapon. In a city of lefty progressives with a board of supervisors to match, Newsom has scored major points portraying himself as the risk-taking outsider. It is this angle, perhaps, which best explains his success. After all, who has more sympathy for the underdog than those on the Left? In questioning him about why he would continue to attack the homeless and claim that he was pushing humane compassion, I found myself uneager to contradict him. Not because I didn’t feel the need, but because his whiny and dismissive pouting that he’s everyone’s favorite target, is frustratingly too much to bear. It’s like trying to convince a prince that he’s not invincible; the fallout of aggressive denial would be too daunting.

And thus, Newsom perhaps pulls off one of the most deft political tricks. He manages to both preempt his detractors into polite grimacing despite their loathe of his aggressive cajoling, all the while marching to City Hall rallying against the aggressive cajoling of street squatters trying to survive. Nothing short of diabolic genius.

The question is whether we’re gonna buy it. Gavin’s a steamroller of a salesman, even if he’s got snake oil oozing out of his pores and hair. His common man performance gained significant applause from the SF State crowd. Gonzalez, Alioto and Ammiano all did as well. So perhaps, this means little. Let us pray.