Exploratory effort signals Newsom ready to bring SF civil rights, eco agendas to state

A spokesman for Gavin Newsom's gubernatorial exploratory committee said Wednesday that should the 40-year-old political wunderkind run for California's top electoral post, he will do so implementing an issues-based campaign and will avoid wading into the muck of personality politics.

Eric Jaye, an influential San Francisco-based Democratic strategist and a spokesman for the exploratory committee, said that Newsom is very aware of the deeo field of Democratic candidates he may face in the effort to succeed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2010.

Some of those folks -- a virtual pantheon of who's who in California Democratic politics -- include Attorney General and former Governor Jerry Brown, Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, Controller Steve Westly, state Supt. of Instruction Jack O'Connell, Treasurer Bill Lockyer and L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Should Newsom run he will also likely face down potential GOP candidates such as Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina and former eBay Inc. President Meg Whitman.

"He will focus any campaign on his positions and principles," Jaye told PolitickerCA.com. "This has always been his approach and that's not going to change now."

Jaye said that should the mayor decide to run he will focus on many of the same issues that got him elected twice in San Francisco: poverty and homelessness, green technology-based economic development, environmental protection, access to universal healthcare and improving the state's beleaguered education system.

But away from the Golden State's progressive metropolitan enclaves, some question whether Newsom's brand of politics and his high profile advocacy for gay marriage will play well in parts of the state that are more conservative "red" than liberal "blue."

Jaye said the mayor rejects that line of thinking.

"I know this man and I know that he could never see or understand how taking a strong stand for civil rights could ever be viewed as a negative or as a political liability," Jaye said.

And while Newsom may intend not to go negative, he may well be the target of negative politics due to his admitted affair with the wife of his campaign manager and deputy chief of staff in 2005. The mayor apologized for the transgression, enrolled in an alcohol treatment program and was affirmatively returned to office last November by San Franciscans, enjoying nearly three-quarters of all votes cast.

While Newsom has always ran well-funded mayoral campaigns, doing the same across a state the size of California will cost more -- perhaps as much as $30 million, some observers say.

That cost estimate, according to Corey Cook, a University of San Francisco assistant professor of political science, is the key behind the need to create a campaign exploratory committee.

"(It) will allow him to raise the kind of cash to see if he can even engage in a real race," Cook said. "It's a preliminary, technical but very important first step. It will give him the chance to take a real, unvarnished look at the field and to determine whether he wants to proceed."

Cook added that he believes the gay marriage issue will not be the political sea anchor that some pundits say will hurt Newsom's gubernatorial candidacy outside of the state's larger cities.

"Gavin Newsom can be amazingly disarming," Cook said. "He will look folks in the eye and say, ‘I know you disagree with me about this, but this is why I did it.' People respond to that kind of forthright approach and they end up respecting him for it even if they disagree with him on the original issue."

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