Word: newsom
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Like the lives of the couples his decisions have changed, Newsom's political career has been irrevocably altered. He began it as the millionaire owner of the PlumpJack Cafe and Winery, the son of a local judge, and the husband of former lingerie model turned CNN and Court TV commentator Kimberly Guilfoyle Newsom. At 36 he is the youngest Bay Area mayor since the Gold Rush era. Now, less than 50 days into his tenure, the slick-haired, smooth-talking politician has become both poster boy and punching bag on the hot-button issue of gay marriage. Many Democrats...
Before they elected him by a narrow margin over his Green Party opponent last December, San Franciscans thought they had Newsom figured out. He was a Clintonian New Democrat, the party establishment's choice to replace outgoing Mayor Willie Brown. The issue Newsom was best known for was a favorite with conservatives: he wanted to slash welfare payments to the homeless in return for more city housing. During a contentious campaign, Newsom voiced enthusiasm for same-sex marriage--but that is hardly an unusual platform in America's capital of gay culture. "Every San Francisco politician supports it, and then...
...Newsom did not arrive at city hall spoiling for a fight on gay marriage. He started out by making some symbolic appointments--the city's first female fire chief, the first female police chief, the first openly gay chief of staff. He cut his own pay in the face of an estimated $330 million budget deficit. He had a 63% favorability rating (which has risen barely 3% since the gay marriages began). "He had already ingratiated himself a little with liberals," says San Francisco pollster David Binder. "Politically, he didn't need to do any more...
...hear Newsom tell it, he was incensed by Bush's vow during the State of the Union to preserve the sanctity of traditional marriage. He studied the Massachusetts Supreme Court decision that said gay couples could marry, the Supreme Court's decision in the Texas sodomy case and the California constitution. The latter's equal-protection clause gave him the rationale he needed. He decided that Proposition 22--the successful 2000 ballot measure in California that defined marriage as between a man and a woman--was discriminatory and therefore unconstitutional...
...same time, he began calling Democrats in Washington, telling them what he had in mind. California Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer both advised the mayor against attacking the law by flouting it. Openly gay Massachusetts Representative Barney Frank said Newsom was jeopardizing gay marriage elsewhere and making a constitutional amendment more likely. If Newsom allowed gay marriages, the party said, it would be a liability for his political future...