Why Is That Mayor Gavin Newsom Was Missing in Action? He explains why
On the night of Aug. 4, after a federal district judge struck downProposition 8, California’s ban on same-sex marriage, a gaggle of San Francisco politicians worked their way up the City Hall steps to rally the jubilant crowd of 800 that was roaring its approval for the landmark ruling.
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Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco, shown Aug. 9, has become less visible on the issue of same-sex marriage as he runs for lieutenant governor.
The lineup of speakers read like a who’s who of city officials with political ambitions — from Supervisor Bevan Dufty, the openly gay candidate for mayor, to Dennis J. Herrera, the city attorney and one of Mr. Dufty’s likely opponents, to Kamala D. Harris, the Democratic nominee for attorney general.
Conspicuously absent was Mayor Gavin Newsom, whose 2004 decision to distribute marriage licenses to same-sex couples, in defiance of state law, made him a local hero even as it sparked a fierce national debate.
Mr. Newsom, who is now running for lieutenant governor in the November election, missed the public celebrations, his aides explained, because of a scheduled campaign event in Los Angeles. But his absence that night encapsulated what has been a subtle shift by Mr. Newsom in recent weeks, as he has adopted a lower profile on the issue that has defined his political career. (On Monday, a federal appeals court extended an emergency stay on same-sex marriages, and all parties expect the issue to go to theUnited States Supreme Court.)
Mr. Newsom’s change in approach partly reflects a rapid shift in public sentiment on the matter: though voters narrowly approved the marriage ban in 2008, opinion polls show that it is a waning issue for many voters, and neither party expects its candidate to have to stake an overt position in this year’s election.
A poll conducted in March by the Public Policy Institute of California shows that, for the first time, at least half of Californians say they support same-sex marriage.
“The Republicans read the same polls we do,” said Rick Jacobs, the founder of the Courage Campaign, a grassroots organization that pushed for the lawsuit challenging Proposition 8. “While this was used handily by the right wing in 2004 as a wedge issue, there’s no intensity for it now.”
Mr. Newsom acknowledged in an interview on Wednesday that he had made a choice to be less outspoken on same-sex marriage compared with past years. He said his new tone reflected how the debate had matured and was not a sign that he had changed his commitment to the issue.
“This movement has nothing to do with me; I’m just a small part of it,” Mr. Newsom said. “This thing is at a completely different level now. What we needed to do in 2004 was to put a human face on it, and I think we achieved that goal. Now let’s take the politics and the politicians out of it.”
Mr. Newsom’s new strategy also appears to reflect a political calculation as he seeks statewide office for the first time. In the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California, large pockets of the electorate remain hostile to same-sex marriage. Even if his Republican opponent, Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado, does not explicitly make an issue of it, there are signs that it will play an indirect part in the campaign as Mr. Maldonado seeks to portray Mr. Newsom as an out-of-touch San Francisco liberal.
“He’s in a position where his rhetoric has to match the political reality of seeking statewide office,” said Joseph S. Tuman, a professor of political and legal communications at San Francisco State University who is also a Democratic candidate for mayor in Oakland. “Of course he’s grown wiser about that.”
Even as Mr. Newsom rode the marriage issue to national prominence — defyingDemocratic Party leaders like Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts and SenatorDianne Feinstein, who argued that pushing for same-sex marriage legalization was “too much, too fast, too soon” — he got a taste of the dangers inherent in playing a lead role on such a volatile issue.
In 2004, after Mr. Newsom began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, some Democratic Party elders blamed him for riling the conservative base and contributing to the failure of Senator John Kerry’s presidential campaign.
Then, in 2008, after the California Supreme Court overturned a 2000 ban on same-sex marriage, an emotional Mr. Newsom boasted that gay marriage was coming, “whether you like it or not.” It was a moment that Proposition 8 supporters packaged into a TV ad that ran across the state before the measure was passed.
That outburst continues to haunt him.
“The mayor has repeatedly shown his ‘whether you like it or not’ mentality in his disregard for the will of the voters,” said Brooke Armour, a spokeswoman for Mr. Maldonado. “That’s a governing style that’s very dangerous and very extreme in California.”
Referring to his 2008 blunder, Mr. Newsom said Wednesday: “That was not my best moment. I make mistakes; I just try not to repeat them.”
At the time, Mr. Newsom also came under fire from same-sex marriage advocates who believed that the TV ad had damaged their cause and that the mayor had become a liability.
The bitter 2008 Proposition 8 battle made Mr. Newsom cautious. “I don’t want to repeat that in a way that can be damaging to the movement in the future,” he said. “We’re not doing 1,000-people rallies right now. It’s a totally different phase. This is much more deliberative.”
Mr. Newsom’s change in tone signals that the marriage issue will be one of the most unpredictable elements in the remaining months of the campaign, with both Republicans and Democrats saying that the economy, unemployment and the environment will dominate the discourse.
But even as Mr. Newsom takes a less public stance on marriage, supporters are split on his handling of it: some believe that the mayor’s Democratic base will understand that he remains committed to the cause, while others question his change in approach.
“I cannot think of a single person who does not know the key role that the mayor has played,” said Mr. Jacobs of the Courage Campaign.
Former Mayor Willie L. Brown Jr. of San Francisco said the mayor was “just as enthusiastic as ever.”
Others, however, say it may be a mistake for the Newsom camp to play down his support for same-sex marriage, which has been his signature issue.
Chris Lehane, a San Francisco political consultant who is a veteran of the Clinton White House and Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign, said that in retrospect it had been a “major mistake” not having Mr. Gore discuss the environment heavily. The Newsom campaign, he said, has an opportunity to frame its candidate as someone with courage.
“From Day 1 in 2004, he stepped out on the issue,” Mr. Lehane said. “He now has an indelible courage brand, which every politician is striving to get.”
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