Unfortunately, when Gavin Newsom hosts his town hall meetings or fundraising events outside of San Francisco, he’s hardly challenged or asked hard questions.
If you live outside of San Francisco, please consider asking Gavin some real questions, instead of just following his tweets on Twitter.
10 Questions for Gavin C. Newsom
1. When you were running for re-election in 2007 unopposed by any serious opposition, the 1,000+ member Municipal Executives Association consisting of department managers, refused to endorse your re-election. What does this say about your skills as an effective executive and leader? If your own city department managers think you’re a bad executive, why do you think you’ll be an effective statewide executive?
2. You tout your “green” credentials. Yet most prominent local environmental groups such as the Sierra Club’s Bay area chapter and the San Francisco League of Conservation Voters didn’t support you in your past campaigns for Mayor. These groups accuse you of “greenwashing” and for consistently choosing development interests over environmental interests. If the local Bay area Sierra Club won’t endorse you for Mayor, why should we trust you to be a strong environmental governor?
3. How do you respond to criticism that you lack the integrity to serve as a governor. If one of your own former best friends couldn’t trust you with his wife while he served as one of your key aides, how can California voters trust you?
4. Why didn’t you support Barack Obama for President during the Democratic primary? You are trying to cast yourself as a California version of Obama – an outsider – and yet you are clearly an insider with deep connections to Senator Feinstein, Speaker Pelosi, and other political insiders. How do you explain this?
5. The Governor must have good relations with his legislative leaders to tackle tough problems facing California. It’s a known fact within San Francisco that you’ve never had good relations with the majority of the local legislative body, the Board of Supervisors, whose members are mostly from your own Democratic Party. If you can’t even maintain positive relations with the majority of your own local legislative body in San Francisco, how will you work well with our State legislative leaders?
6. You are trying to appeal to young voters. But why did the San Francisco Young Democrats, the largest local Democratic club for voters under 35 years old, refuse to endorse you during your re-election in 2007?
7. San Francisco for Democracy PAC, a local off-shoot of former Howard Dean supporters from Democracy for America, also refused to endorse your re-election for Mayor in 2007. Why did San Francisco for Democracy and many other groups in San Francisco refuse to support you?
8. If you believe in government transparency, why do you refuse to hold open press conferences for the local media in San Francisco? When was the last time you held an open press conference inviting all members of the media to ask you open-ended questions, as opposed to scripted town hall meetings in front of friendly audiences? And why do you hide from the public the cost of your taxpayer-funded security detail that travels with you to your campaign events throughout the state?
9. Who deserves more credit for pushing universal healthcare in San Francisco, you or former San Francisco Supervisor and current State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano? Who deserves more credit for establishing the rainy day fund in San Francisco, you or Ammiano?
10. The Governor must deal with many crises. As Mayor, why did you stay on vacation in Hawaii during the biggest oil spill in the San Francisco Bay?
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