The fallout from Mayor Gavin Newsom’s affair with a married staff member continues as the SF Chronicle reports today that Ruby Rippey-Tourk received $10,000 in retroactive pay which city officials are having a hard time explaining. While all of this is occurring in the background, Newsom is trying to conduct his business as usual. Yesterday, he gave a speech in which he admitted to failing the city in terms of public safety and infrastructure maintenance. Earlier this week, he celebrated the third anniversary of his attempt to legalize gay marriage in the city (apparently, Newsom respects the solemnity of gay marriage, but not solemnity of the marriage of his straight friends and employees).
Last weekend, Newsom held an event at his newly opened campaign office, apparently determined to run for a second term. He clearly doesn’t get it (wouldn’t you think, given his recent problems, they would have just quietly opened the office until things died down?). It’s no surprise that Newsom, normally considered the middle-of-the-road politician in