Mayor Sorry For Affair With Aide's Wife

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's Ex-Campaign Manager Resigned Over Matter

(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!!

[thgdriver]

Tourk approached the mayor about it, then resigned.

At least Tourk kept his head and did not shoot them both.

This story could be reading a lot worse.

[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.

[thgdriver]

grumpas

They "All" lie, cheat and steal while in office.

So it's ok with you to ***% the other guys wife.

[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.

[dogsoul]

great snippet from SFGATE.com

MAYOR Gavin Newsom's affair with his appointments secretary would have represented a horrible lapse in judgment even if she weren't married -- and even if her husband had not been a longtime friend of Newsom who dedicated his considerable professional skills to helping advance the mayor's career.

The aggravating factors -- betrayal of a friend, violation of one of the most fundamental rules of the workplace -- assure that the sordid episode will damage Newsom's stature even in a city with famously tolerant attitudes about ***.

The mayor, who likes to quote from his voluminous collection of the latest "best practices" books on business management, seems to have missed Lesson One from sexual harassment training: Avoid intimate relationships with subordinates. Even if consensual at the outset, they can take unpredictable and dangerous turns and poison the workplace for the employee or her colleagues.

Newsom is also a student of politics, who could not have missed the parallels with former President Bill Clinton -- and all the self-inflicted misery of his sexual excesses -- as the mayor's relationship with Ruby Rippey-Tourk began to breach the bounds of propriety

[dogsoul]

...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" that 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...

[bm6005]

Unfortunately, an example of the little head overiding the big head. Has nothing to do with politics!

[dogsoul]

...and this is a guy who is young, good looking, powerful, probably very well off financially, famous, etc... He's going around dating starletts and could really have any number of women he wanted.... yet he chose to take a subordinate at work, married to another employee, who is also a close personal friend... I mean, come ON folks -

He had 99.99999% more alternative opportunities than your average guy to fulfill those desires with countless beautiful women

He had every professional motivation imagineable to seek that satisfaction outside the office

He had every moral & ethical responsibility conceivable to stay away from his friend's wife

and despite all that - he chose to do what he did...

and that doesn't matter?

[agnim]

More likely a little boy.

Posted by dallison7 at 06:57 AM : Feb 02, 2007

LMAO

You guys are so freaking fun-neee LOL

Republican deviant perverts screw little boys.
Or have their daughters screw other girls.

And Democrat perverts screw their best friend's wife.

Our government is run by a bunch of perverts from dysfunctional families.

[rafterman1]

"and did not have a thing to do with lying to the court whilst under oath. That is PURJURY..."

No, it wa about sexx. The issue that brought Bubba to court in order to commit purjury in the first place was Repub's fascination (and revulsion) of sexx.

It's like the MPAA ratings board, the people that rate movies. They are a very conservative group. You can show all kinds of horrible, head cutting off violence and you can land a PG-13. Sholw one d1ck though - and it's NC-17. Yet breasts will get you only an R.

You righties are all like that. Iraq war with thousands dead? No problem, let's get more of that. Guy has an affair? Scumbag of the earth in your eyes.

[dogsoul]

I thought she also worked as the mayor's secretary during the time...

[dogsoul]

I'm sorry folks - but if honor, integrity, decency, honesty, loyalty, self discipline or character hold ANY sway whatsoever in your assessment of an elected mayor - or ANY public official - or any PERSON for that matter... I simply cannot abide those that say this is a non-issue, that it doesn't matter, that it's none of our business... This strikes a nerve with people for a reason - because however unflatteringly this indiscretion might reflect upon the mayor's office on a professional level - the betrayal on a personal level is of the highest order - and while there's plenty to be said about how a scumbag might be able to do a good job - generally speaking, people tend to avoid known scumbags because good job or not... eventually they tend to knife you in the back.