Newsom Drops Out of Governor's Race

What caused San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom to run away from the race to lead our troubled state? Calbuzz has the skinny on Newsom's lack of fire for the fundraising part of politics:

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's publicly-stated reason for dropping out of the Democratic race for governor was the absolute truth: "With a young family and responsibilities at City Hall, I have found it impossible to commit the time required to complete this effort the way it needs to -- and should be -- done."

....Despite his charisma, policy depth and breezy communication skills, Newsom found himself behind Attorney General Jerry Brown by 8-to-1 in campaign cash and 20 points in the polls because of three key problems: his utter lack of discipline, his inability to manage his City Hall staff and his faulty judgment about the practical operations of a statewide campaign.

Last week, with about $375,000 in the bank, Newsom finally realized he would have to put City Hall on maintenance mode and commit to at least 20-40 hours a week on the phone, schmoozing donors and political shakers, raising money the old-fashioned way - a task he simply could not make himself do....

He would find one excuse after another to blow off scheduled time for fund-raising, even when his campaign staff arranged for an office across the street from City Hall. He could not be made to make the phone calls -- even in the car during drive time -- for a senator's birthday or a labor leader's new baby....

Newsom believed he could fundraise using such new media tools as Facebook, which proved not to be the case. His campaign staff and mayoral staff were also constantly at loggerheads on how to sell the candidate-that-won't-be.

Meanwhile, in the camp of the Last Democrat Standing, not-yet-officially-running Jerry Brown's spokesman at the AG office resigns for illegally taping phone calls from reporters.

So does this mean our mayor Villaraigosa should renege on his commitment to not run for governor?, the L.A. Times asks.

City of Angles has been following the gubernatorial race on both sides of the aisle here and here.

The image associated with this entry was taken by Flickr user jdlasica. It was used under user Creative Commons license.