The Calitics Gavin Newsom Interview

by Brian Leubitz [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

Yesterday, I interviewed San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. We spent a lot of time talking about health care in San Francisco, the state, and the nation. We moved on to marriage equality, livability issues, and the election.

On health care, the Mayor made the announcement that 10,000 people have now signed up for Healthy San Francisco. (By the way, that's a Calitics exclusive, until it's not) Healthy San Francisco is an innovative single payer lite program built by the Mayor and Supervisor Tom Ammiano. It brings the focus back onto preventive care rather than constantly chasing our tails on acute care. We discussed ABx1 and the hope that we can salvage some of the good parts of that bill. Of course, ABx1 is similar to Senator Clinton's plan, so we took some time to discuss that as well.

On marriage, the Mayor came out swinging. I was prepared to tease the 2004 post-election finger-pointing out, but he came right out with it. And added that separate but equal, is just not equal. We've moved a tremendous distance since 2004 even, when President Bill Clinton told Howard Dean that he had disqualified himself from being president simply for passing civil unions, to where we are now where civil unions are a consensus viewpoint. The tide of history is moving quickly.

There's plenty more on transportation, violence in the City, and affordable housing. At the end you'll see my attempt to try to get him to talk about his electoral future. No luck on that one. But one thing is clear, Mayor Newsom is trying to position himself as a progressive champion of the California party. While he's sure to find some resistance here in the City (and there's plenty), he's saying the right things and voicing the right opinions to move himself to the left edge amongst such prominent politicians in the state.

At the Google Video page, you can download a video for your iPod or other mobile device.