I tried to see your point of view, but I have to have things my way.

Now you are a short timer. A king without a castle. A lame duck.

So it’s time to say goodbye. Stranger. It’s been nice. I’ll never look behind me.

Please try not to screw up San Francisco too much in the new year.

I love you Gavin Newsom, and I dedicate this song to you:

It was an early morning yesterday
I was up before the dawn
And I really have enjoyed my stay
But I must be moving on

Like a king without a castle
Like a queen without a throne
I’m an early morning lover
And I must be moving on

Now I believe in what you say
Is the undisputed truth
But I have to have things my own way
To keep me in my youth

Like a ship without an anchor
Like a slave without a chain
Just the thought of those sweet ladies
Sends a shiver through my veins

And I will go on shining
Shining like brand new
I’ll never look behind me
My troubles will be few

(Goodbye stranger it’s been nice)
(Hope you find your paradise)
(Tried to see your point of view)
(Hope your dreams will all come true)

(Goodbye Ruby, Goodbye Kim)
(Will we ever meet again)
(Feel no sorrow, feel no shame)
(Come tomorrow, feel no pain)

Sweet devotion, (Goodbye Ruby)
It’s not for me (Goodbye Kim)
Just give me motion, (Will we ever)
and set me free (meet again)

Land in the ocean, (Feel no sorrow)
far away (feel no shame)
It’s the life I’ve chosen (Come tomorrow)
every day (feel no pain)

So Goodbye Ruby, (Goodbye Ruby)
Goodbye Kim (Goodbye Kim)
Will we ever (Will we ever)
meet again (meet again)

Now some they do and some they don’t
And some you just can’t tell
And some they will and some they won’t
With some it’s just as well

You can laugh at my behavior
That’ll never bother me
Say the devil is my savior
But I don’t pay no heed

And I will go on shining
Shining like brand new
I’ll never look behind me
My troubles will be few

(Goodbye stranger it’s been nice)
(Hope you find your paradise)
(Tried to see your point of view)
(Hope your dreams will all come true)

(Goodbye Ruby, Goodbye Kim)
(Will we ever meet again)
(Feel no sorrow, feel no shame)
(Come tomorrow, feel no pain)
Sweet devotion, (Goodbye Ruby)
it’s not for me (Goodbye Kim)

Just give me motion, (Will we ever)
And set me free (meet again)
Land in the ocean, (Feel no sorrow)
Far away (feel no shame)
It’s the life I’ve chosen, (Come tomorrow)
Every day (feel no pain)

Now I’m leaving, (Goodbye Ruby)
Got to go, (Goodbye Kim)
Hit the road (Will we ever)
I’ll say it once again, (meet again)
oh yes I’m leaving (Feel no sorrow)
Got to go, (feel no shame)
Got to go. (come tomorrow)

I’m sorry I must tell you (feel no pain)
But Goodbye Ruby, (Goodbye Ruby)
Goodbye Kim (Goodbye Kim)
Will we ever (Will we ever)
Meet again (meet again)

Oh I’m leavin’
I’ve got to go

It’s been a week since Newsom quit the governor’s race.

There has been some awesome analysis and Monday morning quarterbacking on his fail.

But who would’ve thought in a million years that the mayor who wasn’t there would act like a spoiled child who didn’t get his way and completely abandon San Francisco?

Take an unplanned trip to Hawaii?

Really?

The trip, which the mayor apparently booked on his own, caught his staffers off guard. Many did not know he was gone until the city attorney’s office sent out a notice informing them that the mayor had left the state…

Aren’t you the chief executive of a $6.5 billion city in continual budget crisis? Shouldn’t you give your staff proper notice when you decide to leave the state?

Maybe the mayor has gone on a permanent “vacation”.

I asked a clinical psychologist what he thought about all this recent random and impulsive behavior — he thinks Gavin Newsom is behaving like a person with Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

I’m no head shrinker, all I know is that Gavin is acting kind of crazy, even for Gavin.

I wonder if Gavin Newsom is even fit to be mayor anymore.

It's a big long shadow to try to out run.

Told you so.

We wrote that the Fresh Prince of San Francisco would quit the Governor’s race by this fall Halloween.

People thought we were sniffing too much L’Oreal hair gel and that we were conspiracy theorists.

But we knew from the start that Gavin Newsom had no statewide political legs.

Plus, our sources were deep and proper. You wouldn’t believe how many of his former friends and supporters were willing to talk to us.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Gavin Newsom pulled out because of family.

Where have I heard that one before?

It’s all kind of bittersweet when you think about it.

Today, in celebration, all of us here at I Love You Gavin Newsom would like to dedicate this song to Gavin Newsom, whose decision to abandon his bid for governor has saved us from having to come up with at least seven more months of loving tributes.

I love you Gavin Newsom!

And the media just loves to report on Newsom’s tweets and his Twitter milestones.

Yes, the Newsom for California campaign has added hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers in the past several months.

Gavin Newsom Twitter stats provided by twittercounter.

This astonishing growth isn’t due to the Gavinator’s good looks and popularity, or the organic evolution of a real Internet audience.

Twitter actually gives these followers to Newsom when new Twitter users sign up.

They do it through their controversial Suggested User List (SUL) feature.

This is Gavin Newsom on Twitter's suggested user list.

You may have recently read some news stories and blog posts about Twitter’s SUL.

Through this feature, Twitter is aggregating and building an online audience that the Newsom for California campaign would otherwise have to pay to create, in the same way Newsom’s campaign today buys eyeballs and clicks from Google, Facebook, etc. to ultimately drive traffic to his campaign website.

But since Twitter is giving this non-monetary service to a registered political campaign without its value being disclosed, Gavin Newsom is violating California’s campaign finance law, you know, as he tweets.

California law states that a contribution can be defined as:

§18215(b)(3) Any goods or services received by or behested by a candidate or committee at no charge or at a discount from the fair market value, unless the discount is given in the regular course of business to members of the public.

Does being on Twitter’s SUL constitute a non-monetary contribution? YES.

Twitter is providing this free service to Gavin Newsom, a declared candidate for governor. Newsom uses Twitter to send his Twitter followers links to his campaign website and to campaign news stories promoting his candidacy.

Is this Twitter service discounted and given to members of the public in the regular course of business? NO.

The SUL is not for sale or accessible to the general public. Twitter is a private company so there is no knowing if they’ve been selling the service. Twitter publicly says they don’t charge for the service.

Recent news stories put Twitter’s SUL cash value around $250,000. And when you analyze Twitter’s SUL, it’s not random, and it doesn’t look like any member of the public can ask to be put on the list, or even pay to be on the list.

Essentially, being featured on the Twitter suggested user list is a corporate black box decision and benefit provided to select customers that is not available to the general public though Twitter’s regular course of business.

In the opinion of a campaign treasurer consultant:

Twitter is giving Gavin Newsom privileged access and promotion on its proprietary online network through the company’s suggested user list feature, an Internet media service that is not accessible or for sale to members of the general public. Therefore, the Newsom for California campaign is receiving a non-monetary contribution from Twitter that must be valued, declared and disclosed to come into compliance with California’s government code and Title 2 regulations as enforced by the FPPC.

When a non-monetary contribution like Twitter’s is received, the fair market value of the goods or service must be reported as required by California’s Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC).

Has Newsom reported such a contribution from Twitter? NO.

Now all Newsom has to do is have Gary South send Twitter a missive, ask them how much their SUL contribution is worth, and then go file FPPC Form 460, which is required by all official candidates for public office to disclose monetary and non-monetary campaign contributions of value.

If not, this cozy business relationship will continue to violate campaign finance law.

So, what’s the big deal anyway — I mean besides all this stuff being illegal?

Newsom hasn’t raised enough money to stay competitive and he’s lagging in all polls.

But he claims a formidable “online following” as a testament to his campaign strength.

Newsom has been accumulating Twitter followers primarily due to his campaign accepting a non-monetary contribution from Twitter – a contribution with significant value that legally must be reported.

But if Twitter pulled Gavin Newsom off their SUL, he’d be in for a rude surprise.

That’s right.

No more weekly “earned” media stories about Gavin being tech-savvy.

"This logo didn't poll well..."

By now you’ve read the news that Newsom for California decided to hold a contest to pick a new logo.

Wow, this is soooo exciting — I feel like I’m getting in on the ground floor of the most amazing grassroots campaign — ever!

Um, didn’t they already have a campaign logo?

Yeah, it’s that ugly one on the right with the lame font choice and horrible color combo.

I’m thinking this logo-picking public relations stunt thing might have been a good idea *before* Newsom started campaigning.

Now that implosion in full autumn bloom the timing couldn’t be worse, nor could the logos from which people had to choose.

Here is the “people’s choice” winner:

Here were their six “choices”:

I don’t like how this went down.

Not one bit. It’s not fair.

Maybe I’m just sore as hell because team Newsom didn’t go with my own very awesome and very creative and very original submission:

Newsom for Governor of Twitterfornia!

As Governor of Twitterfornia, Gavin Newsom will be limited to 140 character press releases and unfulfilled policy promises. Just like being mayor of San Francisco.

Time to go back to bartending?

Sources inside San Francisco City Hall and close to the Newsom campaign say it’s just a matter of time before Gavin Newsom quits his bid for the Democratic Party nomination in the 2010 California governor’s race.

Citing poor results in polls both statewide and locally and little fundraising traction, supporters and detractors alike say the Newsom campaign is a ship about to sink.

They point to over-the-summer stories of key long-time aides jumping ship and the fact that Gary South, his paid statewide campaign consultant, is failing to build team chemistry between remaining loyalists, as well as inspiring new people to join the team.

Additionally, sources close to Alex Tourk (the former best friend and campaign manager of Gavin Newsom) cited that renewed and damaging sex scandal allegations were privately presented to the Newsom campaign team.

Tourk allies, upset over Newsom’s attempt to rewrite history in recent interviews with national publications, told the Newsom for California campaign through intermediaries that more details of Newsom’s past would be leaked to national media.

Differences in strategy on how to continually message and spin Newsom’s sordid past was one major reason given as to why Eric Jaye, Gavin’s former long-time political advisor and consultant, left the struggling gubernatorial campaign.

As to the timing of his announcement to quit the governor’s race, sources close to Jaye say that Newsom will wait until the birth of his child and cite that major life event as the excuse for withdrawing from the race.

These anonymous sources say that there will be an “I am quitting the governor’s race so I can spend more time with my family” press release, sometime this fall around Halloween.

At least Gavin has a fall-back job — he can finally be mayor of San Francisco.

More likely, he’ll run for a less competitive statewide office or just go back to being a bartender at Plumpjack.

More flash than fashion sense?

Los Angeles Times – The LA Times just printed a Gavin Newsom profile piece that ain’t no fluff.

Angelinos now know the Newsom that San Francisco knows – an absentee mayor lacking substance who governs by press releases.

“Once he’s said it and it’s printed in the newspapers, it’s done in his mind,” said Jim Ross, a political consultant who ran Newsom’s 2003 campaign for mayor. “Then it’s on to the next big announcement.”

Would-be allies say they rarely hear from the mayor. Department heads complain about a lack of guidance. Newsom perpetually wars with the 11-member Board of Supervisors, raising the question of how he would deal with Sacramento’s querulous 120-member Legislature.

Homelessness remains a problem; the city’s official tally shows that more than 6,500 people lack permanent shelter, a slight rise over the last four years after a big decline. Portions of Market Street, the city’s grand boulevard, reek of urine. Muni, the city’s public transit system, is a constant source of complaint. Bayview-Hunter’s Point, the historically poor, black neighborhood, appears as isolated and desperate as ever. Affordable housing is, for many, an oxymoron.

And some of Newsom’s biggest backers – in civic groups and policy circles, among political activists and campaign donors – have in the last few years become some of the mayor’s sharpest critics.

In a series of interviews, they expressed disappointment and accused Newsom, in words oft-repeated, of focusing more on self-aggrandizement and personal publicity than solving the city’s problems.

Of course the man-child mayor denied all of these criticisms in the Times’ story, because afterall, Gavin Newsom lives on Fantasy Island.

Daily Kos

In fact, as time goes on, he gets even more unpopular as a gubernatorial candidate among likely statewide voters.

As Swing State Project reports:

San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom doesn’t fare as well in head-to-heads — Whitman edges him out by 1, while he beats the other GOPers by 1 — and that’s reflected in his favorables. He’s the only one of the five gubernatorial candidates who’s in negative favorability territory….”

Wow.

In a room with Jerry Brown, Meg Whitman, Steve Poizner, and Tom Campbell, Gavin Newsom is hated the most.

Back in March, a CBS 5 by SurveyUSA showed that Gavin was viewed as “completely unqualified by 27 percent of voters.”

And in November 2008, a Field Poll revealed that Gavin “had the highest unfavorable rating of all the potential candidates — 41 percent.”

What does this say about Gavin’s future?

It means he’s only going to get more unpopular because the trends lines are pretty clear.

The more voters get to know Gavin, the less they like about him.

It’s time to start calling him Mr. Unfavorable.

Voter Beware!

SF Chronicle — This newspaper headline says it all:

Newsom just lost his brain.

Lots of people are now leaving Gavin Newsom’s campaign for governor. It seems there might not be much of a future riding the SS Gavin Newsom.

And while Gavin decided to go South for a new brain, he’s showing his spending habits by burning cash like there’s no tomorrow.

Newsom, who has a full staff working the campaign, has only $1.1 million left in the bank.

Perhaps it would just be cheaper to post a craigslist personal ad — wanted: new brain.

Gavin’s long-time advisor and campaign consultant, Eric Jaye, has left the campaign over “a fundamental difference in how to run a campaign.”

Like many City Hall observers who are used to spin from political consultants, I thought to myself — “Holy shit, did Gavin sleep with Eric Jaye’s wife too?!?”

Gavin slept with his last campaign manager’s wife so I couldn’t help but wonder if Gavin has done it again — you know, creating an uncomfortable situation forcing a top campaign aide to resign.

"Was that an iceberg or loyalty we just hit?"

Eric Jaye’s departure is big news because, quite frankly, he deserves credit for taking an empty suit like Gavin and transforming him into a two-dimensional candidate.

That’s hard to do.

Essentially, Eric Jaye took a lemon and turned it into voter lemonade for low-information voters who don’t have the time or inclination to research Gavin Newsom’s record.

And then we hear that even more of Gavin’s long-time, loyal aides are abandoning ship.

It’s obvious to me that these aides don’t see much of a future by sticking around to watch Gavin implode in his race for Governor.

Seriously, if these aides saw a chance to ride Gavin’s speed boat to the Governor’s mansion, they would have stayed on. But apparently, all they see in Gavin is a broken-down cruiser that will eventually sink.

Wait and see. More “loyal” aides will soon be jumping off the SS Gavin Newsom.

Ahoy matey — abandon ship!