Mayor Sorry For Affair With Aide's Wife

(AP)  Mayor Gavin Newsom apologized Thursday for having a sexual relationship with his former campaign manager's wife, the day after the aide resigned.

"I'm deeply sorry," Newsom said during a brief news conference at City Hall. He didn't take any questions after the brief announcement.

Newsom's campaign manager resigned after confronting Newsom about an affair the mayor had with the aide's wife, the San Francisco Chronicle reported in Thursday's editions. Alex Tourk, 39, served as Newsom's deputy chief of staff until September, when he became manager of the re-election campaign.

After his wife told him about the affair, Tourk approached the mayor about it, then resigned, people with direct knowledge of Wednesday's meeting told the Chronicle. They spoke on condition they not be identified.

Tourk did not immediately return phone calls and e-mails seeking comment by The Associated Press.

The mayor's office issued a statement announcing Tourk's resignation, citing only unspecified personal reasons.

"It has been an honor and a privilege to serve the Newsom campaigns and the city of San Francisco and its residents," Tourk said in the statement.

Newsom, 39, who is seeking a second four-year term in November, said in the statement that he accepted Tourk's resignation "with great sadness," adding that he was "an extraordinary leader of our campaigns and a tireless public servant."

Eric Jaye, Newsom's senior campaign strategist, would neither confirm nor deny the Chronicle's report. Tourk "resigned for personal reasons. Personal means personal to us and we are respecting that," Jaye said.

"The mayor is focused on his job as mayor. That is where his attention is right now, not on this," Jaye told the AP, adding that he was referring to "press fascination with issues that Alex Tourk said himself is a personal reason."

Newsom's spokesman, Peter Ragone, declined to comment.

The Chronicle said Ruby Rippey-Tourk, 34, told her husband that the affair was short-lived and happened about 1 1/2 years ago, when she worked as the mayor's appointments secretary. At the time, Newsom was in divorce proceedings with his then-wife, Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle.

Rippey-Tourk, who left the mayor's office last spring and is now a local radio host, did not return the Chronicle's calls for comment, the newspaper said.

[bm6005]

Agreed!!!

[bluestardad]

this coward is ***************** wife it does not get any lower.

[bm6005]

I'm going to simplfy my answer. *** scandals between consenting adults are normal, stupid and I could care less if the participants are repub, demo, indepeds, etc. Unless threats or coercion were employed don't bother me. It's their business. If someone in a position of trust, authority, dateline predator, etc uses that to coerce an underage page, student, underage girl/boy on the internet then it's reprehensible. I don't give a rats a.s.s. if Gingrich leaves his wife, if Billy Bob gets a *** job. I don't think any political, ethnic, religious group, suffers from this anymore than any other group. Point is Newsom's an ***, Foley's a predator. No politics involved!!!

[dogsoul]

Ah - but how people react to sexx scandals is ENTIRELY political, from my previous posts:

...well, as for the difference between Democrats & Republicans - I'd agree neither are strangers to sexx scandals... however, when a Republican has one - he's told by his own party to go crawl in a hole & die... and that's usually what ends up happening - when a Democrat has one, he's re-elected with applause, comes out as a "Gay American" who should not be victimized as such, is painted as "only human" or otherwise forgiven because, "everyone does it" - any number of excuses & cast-no-stones type rhetoric tends to hit the streets when it's one of THEIR guys...

According to the National Organization for Women & many other liberal groups - a male boss doinking his female subordinates, consenting or not, represents a deplorable breach because of the inherent power he holds over them by way of his position... And let's face it, if you or I were caught doing the exact same thing, especially in the office (oval or otherwise) - we'd be fired on the spot - and our dismissal would be wholeheartedly endorsed if not demanded by many of those same liberal groups... Yet somehow, someway - when it turns out that the guy they would otherwise deem a predator is one of THEIR people... it becomes a "personal matter between consenting adults" or simply brushed aside as "only human" or rationalized away because "JFK did it too".

[bm6005]

YOU DEMS SURE MADE IT POLITICAL WITH MARK FOLEY.
Posted by b48151 at 01:31 PM : Feb 02, 2007

Not my point Moron!! The human *** drive is apolitical. If you don't think, don't post!!

[perception5]

He should resign........he probably won't he'll get re-elected like Mayor Nagan who let over 1,000 people die in New Orleans because he didn't feel like evacuating the city.........or like Congressman Jefferson D-LA who had 90K cold cash in his freezer....... he got re-elected too.

[agnim]

"Well, at least it wasn't Gay ***, because that would've been OK in San Francisco

Posted by gunnerv1 at 12:24 PM : Feb 02, 2007"
LMAO
You guys are too funny.

The mentally mixed up and filthy f@ggots make such good props for a laugh.

And by the way, don't rule out the possibility that the mayor from that weird and slimy city of San Fransisco also seeks to mate with his own gender.

[billzor]

A lapse in judgement? He's deeply sorry? How condescending-he should've resigned.

[gunnerv1]

Well, at least it wasn't Gay ***, because that would've been OK in San Francisco

[cmp271]

I thought he was gay, he is too pretty not to be so it was a surprise he had been with a woman, let alone he is/was married. Same with Bill, except his wife is as everyone says. GOP "players" mess about too, who cares, why care, we are all degenerates we accept it and keep these people in office. Clean up TV and society may change its values.