S.F. mayor rides wave of popularity into election

SAN FRANCISCO -- In his first term, Mayor Gavin Newsom divorced his wife, owned up to an alcohol problem, appeared at an event where his underage girlfriend was drinking and admitted to an affair with his campaign manager's wife.

He infuriated conservatives — granted, a rare breed here — by not only approving gay marriages but also celebrating them in his City Hall office. And he may be the mayor remembered for losing the city's beloved pro football 49ers if the team makes good on its threat to move to Santa Clara.

So why, as the 40-year-old former restaurant and wine shop owner runs for re-election today, do more than 70% of voters give him high marks while he faces only token opposition?

"This has been an unprecedented era of extremely high approval ratings that seem to be resistant to any sort of scandal or concern voters have about the direction of the city," says David Binder, a San Francisco pollster. "It's really amazing."

If Newsom is a second-term shoo-in, can he rise above personal issues and morph into an attractive Democratic candidate for statewide office in 2012 after he's filled the term limits as mayor?

He can lay claim to popular policy initiatives — universal health care, restricting homeless welfare, strengthening the city's "green" development credentials, reducing gang violence — that could resonate with voters across California.

At times City Hall resembled a soap opera. Newsom and his wife, Kimberly Guilfoyle, host of a cable TV crime show, separated early in his first term when she took a job in New York. An on-again, off-again bicoastal marriage ended in divorce, and she married furniture fortune heir Eric Villency last year.

A year ago, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that photos had surfaced showing his 20-year-old girlfriend, hostess and model Brittanie Mountz, holding a wine glass during a shopping mall opening that the mayor attended. Newsom's office said he and Mountz hadn't attended together.

In February, after published reports that he'd been seen intoxicated around the city, Newsom sought treatment for a drinking problem. Just days before, he had come clean about the affair with his former appointments secretary, Ruby Rippey-Tourk, wife of campaign manager Alex Tourk. Tourk confronted the mayor and resigned.