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Politics & Government

Gavin Newsom and the Curse of the Lieutenant Governor

Could Newsom intend on running for retiring Lynn Woolsey's House seat? Bet on it.

To employ a mixed mammalian metaphor, the dark horse in the upcoming race for the District 6 California House seat, which represents Marin, may also be the 800-pound gorilla in the room.

We are, of course, referring to California Lt. Gov. Newsom, whose move to Marin this summer has provided a tangy twist into what will otherwise be a run-of-the-mill race between Marin’s two favorite moderates, Susan Adams and Jared Huffman.

Wipe off that sneer. The idea that the “Gavinator” would run for an office that seems like a rung down the California political ladder is to discount the morale-busting nature and sheer irrelevance of the lieutenant governorship. In fact, over the last 50 years at least three L-G’s have given up the office in disgust and successfully run instead for Congress.

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For Glenn Anderson in the ‘50s and ‘60s, Mervyn Dymally in the ‘70s, and, John Garamendi in the ‘ought’s, the lieutenant governorship aligns with Franklin Roosevelt’s first vice president, Texan John Nance Garner’s description of the power and influence his office being something akin to “a pitcher of warm piss.” As is their want, historians later desalinated this description to “spit.”

Whichever liquid you prefer, however, current Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom seems to have found the largely ceremonial activities,  the “B” grade ribbon cuttings, state fair “Best of Show” awards and other such public acts, an apt analogy to Vice President Garner’s salty description of his own second-string status.

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Consider last winter’s political cartoon by Tom Meyer in which an eager Newsom stands outside the state Capitol, “Hi,” he says by way of introduction, “I’m Lieutenant Governor Newsom … does the Governor have something he wants me to do?” The next frame shows Newsom, holding a leash waiting while what seems to be Gov. Brown’s pooch sniffs out a local fire hydrant. There is a report that Gov. Brown actually keeps a copy of Meyer’s cartoon in his office, the better to remind visitors where the real seat of power resides.

It was actually one of Gov. Brown’s earlier lieutenant governors, the Republican record producer Mike Curb, who got the most out of the office, making Brown’s life hellish by waiting until the governor had left the state for one of many 1980 Democratic presidential campaign events. While the cat was away, Curb took seriously his role of acting governor, making a series of appointments and pro-Republican policy moves that, to Brown’s immense ire, were ultimately declared legally valid.

No such inter-party interplay took place beginning in 2006 when Garamendi was elected California’s 46th lieutenant governor. Garamendi, a crackerjack politician, and a man who would make a hell of a Democratic governor, couldn’t crack the curse of the L-G.

In 2009, Garamendi bailed out in disgust. Rather than go the route of easy re-election as lieutenant governor or a tough Democratic primary election against Brown, Garamendi instead took advantage of Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher’s resignation to win a special election for the seat. Once again, it was a case of a politician snapping up the opportunity to trade the do-nothing L-G’s slot for something meatier.   

Like Garamendi, termed-out San Francisco Mayor Newsom initially contemplated a 2010 run for governor but found little traction against the seemingly unsinkable Brown. Newsom instead settled for the lieutenant governor’s race, figuring to wait on the next open saddle in the California electoral merry-go-round.

About now, however, Newsom is probably thinking fond thoughts about the BART Board or California Board of Equalization, wondering if there is any decent way out of the L-G graveyard. He thus must be casting a covetous eye on Marin’s seat in the House, where he can, like Garamendi, pad his own record while awaiting Gov. Brown’s 2018 retirement.

If Newsom goes for the District 6 House seat, opponents will at first try to dismiss him as an arriviste. That would be a mistake. In 1972, the then-10-year-old Newsom moved with his divorced mother to Marin County, where he lived and graduated in 1985 from Larkspur’s .

Even Newsom’s current summer retreat, a luxe “cottage” in Ross, is in the spirit of old San Francisco when those with the means could find respite from the summer fog and still be within rail/ferry access to downtown San Francisco. He has an existing social beachhead through his partnership in Mill Valley’s .

Even in the unlikely case that redistricting moves California’s 6th District further north, Newsom can rely on his already considerable name recognition and political appeal that would automatically make him the leader of the Marin congressional pack.

Indeed, following the ginchy complications of San Francisco’s juvenile Democratic political club scene, Marin might prove to be a happy landing spot for Newsom. Equally happy Newsom will have few problems raising money. Throughout his career, he has been the recipient of the deep-pocketed largesse of oil heir Gordon Getty, who regards Newsom as a son, and for whose opera “Plump Jack” Newsom gratefully named his wine, food and restaurant business.

Newsom is at heart a canny politician, who has attached his name to a number of the progressive causes that comport with bedrock liberal politics in San Francisco and Marin. Look for Newsom to use the lieutenant governor’s office, however limited it real power, to begin to push such mediagenic causes as this spring’s “Hands Across California,” a program to recognize and support the state’s depleted Community College System. Newsom also employs Warren & Associates, a political campaign company located, perhaps merely coincidentally, in Novato.

Not coincidental, Newsom is above all else a quick learner. Smart enough, for example, to have divested himself of his first wife, Kimberly Guilfoyle, whose over-weaning ambition and right-wing politics have transformed her into Fox Television’s New York-based “It Girl.”

Not to be “Guilfoiled Again,” Newsom’s personal life is today a model of liberal Bay Area probity, a rich, highly-photogenic wife and kids, pets, etc. that will — again not coincidentally — powerfully underlie the 2012 campaign for Congress, which, you read it here first, folks, Newsom will almost certainly decide to undertake.     

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