SAN FRANCISCO mayor apologizes for sex scandal

Newsom apologizes for sex scandal

By Lisa Leff

SAN FRANCISCO — A city accustomed to seeing it all gaped, and then shrugged, Thursday after its dashing young mayor confessed to having an affair with a former secretary, who happened to be the wife of his campaign manager. Confronting a political scandal that carried overtones of a soap opera, Mayor Gavin Newsom made an emotional apology for what he termed a “personal lapse of judgment” during a City Hall news conference called only hours after reports of the interoffice dalliance surfaced. “I want to make it clear that everything you’ve heard and read is true and that I’m deeply sorry about that,” said Newsom, 39, who went on to apologize to the aide, his staff, his family and San Franciscans. Newsom’s former deputy chief of staff, Alex Tourk, 39, resigned as manager of the mayor’s re-election campaign Wednesday after confronting Newsom about his relationship with his wife, Ruby Rippey-Tourk, 34, who worked as the mayor’s appointments secretary until last spring. The brief relationship first reported Wednesday night on the San Francisco Chronicle’s Web site took place a year-and-a-half ago while the mayor was getting divorced from his wife, Fox News Channel host Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former prosecutor and lingerie model. Since his divorce became final last March, the dashing bachelor has half-heartedly lamented his appearances in gossip columns, where his active love life has been frequent fodder and included associations with a 20-year-old model and two actresses. But in his first public statements since the affair was reported, a poised but visibly shaken Newsom did not offer any excuses. “I hurt someone I care deeply about, Alex Tourk, and his friends and family, and that is something I have to live with and something that I am deeply sorry for,” he said. “I am accountable for what has occurred and have now begun the process of reconciling it.” Neither Tourk nor his wife returned phone calls and e-mails from The Associated Press seeking comment. Before the affair became public, the mayor’s office released a statement in which Tourk explained he was leaving his campaign job for personal reasons. He said it had been “an honor and a privilege to serve the Newsom campaigns and the city of San Francisco and its residents.” Since leaving the mayor’s office, Rippey-Tourk, a former KFTY-TV anchor in Santa Rosa, has hosted a weekly radio show for Benefit Magazine, which covers philanthropy in San Francisco. A description of her radio program on the publication’s Web site says she interviews the city’s charitable movers and shakers, “like Mayor Gavin Newsom, Sharon Stone, Robin Williams ... and others.” When he was elected in November 2003, Newsom, then 36, was considered a rising star of the Democratic Party and he received national attention within weeks of taking office after directing his staff to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. His spokesman, Peter Ragone, said Thursday’s revelation would not affect the mayor’s plans to seek a second four-year term in November. Political observers said the divorced mayor’s effusive mea culpa, which came only hours after the story broke on a newspaper’s Web site, may have helped defuse a scandal that threatened to haunt his re-election bid. For many, the scandal stirred memories of President Clinton’s affair with a young intern and his subsequent impeachment. But in contrast to Clinton, who famously denied “sexual relations with that woman,” Newsom quickly confessed and accepted responsibility. Newsom “did a good thing, he told the truth,” said Neel Lattimore, the one-time press secretary to Hillary Rodham Clinton when she was first lady. “By the mayor telling the truth immediately, it begins a healing process now, as opposed to leaving a wound open and continuing to fester.” A handful of San Francisco residents interviewed Thursday said the mayor’s transgression had little bearing on their opinion of him as mayor. “I could care less,” said Lee Simmons, 79, at a downtown bank. “Newsom is great. I voted for him last time and I’ll vote for him again.” More than one recalled the romantic escapades of former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, who was long separated from but still married to his wife when he fathered a child with one of his fundraisers. Lynn Sywolski, 40, who works in commercial real estate, also was quick to forgive Newsom, whom she described as “pretty hot.” She said that San Franciscans should treat the gossip with the same laissez-faire attitude with which the French regarded the extramarital affairs of former president Francois Mitterrand. “I have to tell you honestly I don’t think it’s any of our business,” Sywolski said. “I think he’s done a great job, and I don’t think it is a reflection of his day-to-day job.” Tom Abbott, 36, an executive recruiter, said he would probably vote for Newsom come fall, but that having an affair with a loyal aide’s wife was “a total slime ball move.” “Any guy who puts that much mousse in his hair can’t be trusted,” Abbott said. “You don’t screw over your own boys.”