What Newsom faces in aftermath of scandal
SNIP:
Ambitious plans for city could be challenged by supervisors, police union
Heather Knight, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, February 3, 2007
Embattled San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's first major public appearance Friday -- at a celebration of Black History Month in the City Hall rotunda -- couldn't have gone better. Hordes of children clutched at his suit and asked for autographs, and the mayor clearly relished the positive attention. 
Waiting back at his office, though, was a quick reminder of the scandal in which he finds himself. Reporters threw questions at him.
"I'm back at work, and I'm going to focus on getting things done for the city," was all Newsom would say before walking into his office, the heavy wooden door shutting behind him.
Never one to focus on just the basics of potholes and Muni, Newsom has set an ambitious agenda -- including citywide Wi-Fi access, Police Department reform, universal health care, major development proposals, the restoration of public housing and getting more homeless people off the streets.
None of these would be easy for any mayor in an election year. Whether Newsom can advance his agenda after the revelation that he had sex with an aide -- the wife of his friend and campaign manager -- remains a big question.
"This mayor never had a hands-on style from Day 1, and the current situation certainly doesn't help things," said Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, who has been a vocal critic of the mayor. "In the rough-and-tumble world of politics, political capital is everything, and objectively, scandals of any sort knock down one's political capital."
Eric Jaye, Newsom's chief strategist, said the mayor's agenda is so popular with the majority of San Franciscans that the scandal won't hamper his ability to achieve his goals.
"He didn't have the support of the majority of the board before, and he won't now," Jaye said. "But he has had success pushing for things that have great support with the public, and I think that will continue to happen."
Newsom already had suffered political setbacks in recent months. He learned that the 49ers were planning to move to Santa Clara, dashing the city's bid for the 2016 Olympics. The supervisors handed Newsom his first and second veto overrides on the issue of police foot patrols.
In January, he was mocked by people in chicken suits at a town hall-style meeting his political team had organized after he refused to participate in a monthly question-and-answer period before the supervisors that was called for in a nonbinding ballot measure approved by voters in the fall.
Now, Newsom would surely prefer that political theater in favor of what seems like an episode of "The Young and the Restless" unfolding at City Hall.
According to Corey Cook, a University of San Francisco assistant professor of politics who knows several of Newsom's staff members, restoring the trust of his political team and key administration players must be Newsom's first priority.
The mayor already is missing a key player: Alex Tourk, who resigned after learning of his wife's affair with the mayor. Other staff members feel betrayed by the scandal, according to sources.
"A lot of folks in that building were tying their own futures to the mayor's," Cook said. "All the buzz was about, 'Is he going to run for governor? Is he going to be president?' There are folks saying, 'It's worth all the time and effort because we're going places.' When something so politically reckless occurs, his staff people have got to be wondering, 'Is this somebody I should be spending 80 hours a week working for?'"
The rest of.....The Young and Restless at....
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...NGR9NUBLU1.DTL
"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself."
Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC)
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