San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom – The Biggest Loser in California’s Gay Marriage Fight?

Flap asked the question prior to Tuesday’s California election: Will San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom Deserve The Blame When California Proposition 8 Passes?

The answer is apparently yes – both in San Francisco and statewide (Newsom will run for California Governor in 2010).

Election night was not kind to Gavin Newsom, who may end up one of the biggest losers after suffering a potentially crushing loss with Proposition 8 and at best breaking even in the local contests he had a stake in.

Political analysts have long argued that Newsom has short coattails in local politics – a theory in play with the Board of Supervisors races, in which at least three of the seven seats up for grabs seem likely to go to candidates he did not endorse.

With the local ballot measures, voters for the most part sided with Newsom’s choices, but two propositions that were of particular interest to the mayor – one supporting his special court to prosecute quality-of-life crimes and the other changing the makeup of the San Francisco Transportation Authority – failed spectacularly.

And, pandering to the homosexual lobby has not helped Newsom with other key California Democrat constituencies, African-American and Latino voters.

“The Latino and black voters really turned out in this election. They helped get Proposition 8 voted in, and that portends badly for Gavin Newsom if he’s intending to run for governor,” Boushey said. “He’s going to have to appeal to those voters. They’re socially moderate, and they don’t recognize Gavin Newsom as being socially moderate.”

Paradoxically, the mayor is seen as too liberal for much of the state and too conservative compared to the city’s legislators.

Look to California Attorney General, Jerry Brown, to demagogue the legal challenge to Proposition 8 and pick-up key homosexual lobby support for HIS run for California Governor. Gavin Newsom rolled the dice in 2004 by setting up the California gay marriage flap and will go down to defeat with its proponents.

Here is the video featuring Gavin Newsom – “whether you like it or not:”