Can Newsom Survive Ragone and Tourk Scandals?

Can Newsom Survive Ragone and Tourk Scandals?
by Randy Shaw‚ Feb. 01‚ 2007

Sfgate.com confirmed rumors last night that Newsom campaign manager Alex Tourk resigned his position after confronting the Mayor over Newsom’s affair with Tourk’s wife. Ruby Rippey-Tourk was working for the Mayor when she claims the two engaged in the affair. This allegation could soon require City Attorney Dennis Herrera to prosecute Mayor Newsom for violating city ethics laws. If the Mayor’s Director of Communications Peter Ragone was hoping to get his name out of the papers over his own scandal, he got his wish.

Many critics of Mayor Newsom have credited Peter Ragone, his communications director, for the mayor’s media success. But Ragone’s use of different names to launch e-mail attacks on the mayor’s media critics now has him in hot water, with politicians from Aaron Peskin to Willie Brown questioning Ragone’s credibility. Is Peter Ragone the wizard behind Gavin Newsom’s success, or the court jester who calls attention to himself to divert criticism from his boss? And does Wednesday’s announcement of the departure of Newsom’s re-election campaign manager Alex Tourk, and the political circus that now surrounds the Mayor over his alleged affair with Tourk’s wife, make it less or more likely that the Mayor will push Ragone out?

For many activist critics of Mayor Newsom, it is axiomatic that Peter Ragone has been essential to the Mayor’s positive media image. Some even see Ragone as the “brains” behind the Newsom Administration, believing that his departure would severely weaken the Mayor.

But this image of a super-savvy Ragone is hard to reconcile with his media dealings this week.

In case you have not seen the clip from ABC-TV, after the I-Team’s Dan Noyes confronts Ragone with proof that the Mayor’s go-to press guy has used the name “John Nelson” to send hostile e-mails to Newsom’s critics, Ragone panics. He tells Noyes that Nelson is a close friend of his who lives at his home and shares similar views on issues.

The obvious problem with Ragone’s response is that it was subject to verification. Ragone produced John Nelson yesterday, but the man lives in San Anselmo and admits that he did not send e-mails from Ragone's home computer.

I was told by a reliable source on Tuesday that Nelson does not exist, and Ragone admitted this to KCBS radio’s Barbara Taylor on Wednesday. This makes Ragone look really bad, and puts pressure on Newsom to explain why he should keep a communications director who has lied to the media.

If Ragone were really a real media wizard, he simply would have told Noyes that he used the name “John Nelson” because he was so upset about Noyes’ unfair coverage of the Mayor that he simply could not help himself. In fact, anyone with a modicum of media experience would have known how to turn Noyes’ charges against him.

For example, Ragone could have taken the offensive by telling Noyes how he is certainly not the only public figure who has become exasperated with biased journalism, and that even the Mayor refuses to talk to Noyes. Ragone could also have portrayed himself as a victim whose only mistake was choosing the wrong way to defend himself.

Instead, Ragone chose what was likely the worst possible response: he invented a fictional person. His action confirmed Noyes’ assertions, and kept himself on the defensive.

What should make people doubt Ragone’s alleged brilliance is the press director’s failure to easily accomplish his goal without undermining his credibility.

Could Ragone not find anyone willing to use his or her own name in sending pro- Gavin, anti-Noyes e-mails?

This does not sound like the work of a political mastermind.

To be clear, I am not suggesting that Noyes’ coverage has been biased or unfair. But Mayor Newsom has made this charge, so Ragone should have known enough to take the same tack.

This recent incident should cast doubt on the perception that Peter Ragone is the “brains” behind Gavin Newsom. Many forget that Newsom lived a charmed media life in San Francisco well before Ragone’s arrival, and that the Chronicle’s fawning coverage of Newsom in the 2003 Mayor’s race had nothing to do with Ragone.

Some credit Ragone with the “press event of the day” strategy that saw Newsom dominate the local news cycle throughout his first two years in office. There is no question that Newsom’s press office did a remarkable job generating positive media coverage on gay marriage, the stem cell headquarters contest, homelessness and other issues.

But the Mayor’s support for gay marriage, San Francisco’s winning the stem cell race, and the success of Care not Cash certainly played a large role in the positive media stories. And it now appears that Peter Ragone has alienated more media people than he has won over, and likely hurt the mayor’s public image as much as helped it.

Former Mayor Willie Brown has been extremely reluctant to make any public statements implicitly critical about Mayor Newsom until Ragone’s interview with Noyes. Brown openly criticized Ragone’s former boss, Governor Gray Davis, as politically inept, and appears to be signaling that he shares the same feeling about Ragone.

Or perhaps I am wrong, and Ragone is smarter than even his greatest detractors imagine. Maybe he was consciously playing the court jester in his interaction with Noyes, diverting attention from what Mayor Newsom has been doing since leaving for Davos nearly two weeks ago.

The talk around City Hall on Tuesday was not about the Mayor’s failure to attend “Question Time,” but rather about Ragone’s e-mails. Board President Peskin even introduced legislation creating a “code of conduct” for the city’s public information officers, so that even more focus will go toward Ragone rather than to his boss.

Other traditional media have not jumped on the Ragone story. The Chronicle’s Matier & Ross described the Ragone-Noyes interview on Wednesday in a way that did not make clear that the mayor’s press director had invented a person named John Nelson and then lied about it. Nor did the columnists identify the website where readers could see the damaging video.

It may be that other media see the Ragone issue as Noyes’s story, and do not want to promote effective investigative journalism by a rival.. Or editors may not believe that most Bay Area residents care about Ragone’s e-mails ---the entire “scandal” could be an “inside baseball” type of controversy.

The Ragone scandal has had one interesting outcome: both supporters and critics of the Mayor are hoping the beleaguered communications director stays in his post through November. But for different reasons.

Ragone’s credibility may be the least of the Mayor’s personnel problems. Late Wednesday afternoon, the Newsom for Mayor campaign announced the resignation of its campaign manager, Alex Tourk. Tourk had been the Deputy Chief of Staff for Mayor Newsom before taking a leave of absence that became permanent.

The reason for his leave was widely rumored, but not substantiated until last night. This occurred when sfgate.com reported that Tourk resigned as campaign manager after telling Newsom that he knew of the mayor’s affair with his wife.

Most of the media knew for months about the Mayor’s romantic entanglement with a subordinate employee married to his Deputy Chief of Staff, but could not report it for lack of verification. The Chronicle got the verification, and blew open the story.

If Ruby Rippey-Tourk had not been employed in the Mayor’s Office during the affair, the issue would solely be personal. But neither city department heads nor the mayor can have a sexual relationship with a subordinate under city ethics laws, as well as under state sexual harassment law.

That’s what will likely lead City Attorney Dennis Herrera to file charges against Newsom by the end of the week.

Tourk was widely credited for Newsom’s effective vote by mail campaign in the 2003 mayoral election, a strategy that was key to Newsom’s victory. Along with Jim Ross, Tourk also assembled and ran Newsom’s successful field campaign.

Tourk was known to be the first person in the campaign office in the morning, and the last to leave at night.

Tourk’s skills with field campaigns will be hard to replace, and in light of surrounding events, the Mayor’s re-election campaign may need these skills more than ever.

The timing of Tourk’s departure comes at a time when press secretary Ragone is not in a position to help keep the Good Ship Newsom afloat. Eric Jaye will likely take charge of media relations for the mayor, as the Tourk scandal threatens the Mayor’s political future.