San Francisco mayor apologizes for affair
SAN FRANCISCO – This city’s wildly popular mayor publicly apologized Thursday for having had an affair with his campaign manager’s wife while both she and her husband were working for him.
Gavin Newsom delivered a brief and somber “mea culpa” at a packed news conference as City Hall employees and voters sought to absorb revelations of the infidelity.
“I want to make it clear that everything you’ve heard and read is true, and I’m deeply sorry about that,” the 39-year-old Newsom said in the two-minute briefing, the day after his campaign manager resigned. “I’ve hurt someone I care deeply about – Alex Tourk, and his friends and family. And that is something I have to live with.”
Newsom went on to apologize to all city employees, his own family and the residents of San Francisco.
“My personal lapse of judgment aside, I am committed to restoring their trust and confidence. … We will now be working aggressively to advance our agenda in the city.”
He took no questions.
Newsom issued his apology after Tourk – his re-election campaign manager for this year’s race and former deputy chief of staff – abruptly submitted his resignation late Wednesday, citing “personal” reasons.
Tourk has been one of the mayor’s closest advisers and supporters since Newsom’s winning 2003 election campaign. He also designed a signature accomplishment of the Newsom administration emulated nationwide: bimonthly gatherings – known as Project Homeless Connect – where thousands of volunteers direct the homeless to services.
Newsom, who is running for re-election, enjoyed voter approval ratings above 70 percent as recently as December, but increasingly vocal critics on the Board of Supervisors have complained of what they believe to be his administration’s arrogance and disengagement from day-to-day city business.
The affair between Newsom and Ruby Rippey-Tourk reportedly occurred while the mayor was splitting from his then-wife, attorney and television analyst Kimberly Guilfoyle. Newsom and Guilfoyle filed for divorce in January 2005.
Rumors of the affair had long swirled around City Hall. But sources said Rippey-Tourk only admitted the infidelity to her husband last weekend.
Newsom’s public apology appeared to be aimed largely at Tourk. Yet some observers suggested that, beyond the personal indiscretion, the mayor may have violated workplace conduct rules. The city’s administrative code notes that consensual sexual relationships between a supervisor and subordinate do not necessarily constitute sexual harassment but may create potential for conflict.