Newsom Eyeing
Gubernatorial Run?

San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom is rumored to be eyeing a run for California governor to replace Arnold Schwarzenegger at the completion of his second term. The race, scheduled for 2010, may have a crowded field on the Democratic side, including current attorney general and former governor Jerry Brown, former state controller Steve Westly, and Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

While Newsom has yet to confirm his plans, he's said that many people have approached him about it in recent months. "It's premature to talk about it in the open," he continued. "In the next few months we'll see what happens."

Newsom has been a key figure in controversial issues: universal health care, aid for illegal immigrants, and same-sex marriage, which the state legislature tried to legalize on two separate occasions via bills that Schwarzenegger vetoed. Newsom famously allowed gay and lesbian couples to marry at San Francisco City Hall in February 2004, though those marriages were nullified by the courts later.

On March 4, the day the California supreme court heard arguments regarding the constitutionality of the state ban on same-sex marriage, Newsom called the current governor's stance one that "represents yesterday."

"This governor represents yesterday on this issue," Newsom said last week to reporters regarding same-sex marriage. "There'll be a governor who represents the future, and the next governor will unquestionably, in my mind, if it's a Democrat, support it." (The Advocate)