California Gubernatorial Candidate Explains His Stances, Past Affair

“Property crime is up 24% in SF since @GavinNewsom's Prop 47 made stealing property valued at $950 or less and using illegal drugs a misdemeanor in CA. Does anyone really want someone like Newsom running our state?” Allen tweeted Monday.

“It’s not lost on me that property crimes have gone up in the last few years, but that predates Prop 47, and goes back to  realignment,” Newsom said. “Mr. Allen may have forgotten this. The federal courts came in and required the state to reduce its prison population by 35,000 individuals. We couldn’t even provide basic healthcare to our inmates.”

But Newsom says he’s committed to tweaking the law to close some of the loopholes he believes have led to some of the bigger problems, for example a provision that reduces shoplifting from a felony to a misdemeanor, where the value of the stolen property is less than $950.

“One of those areas I’m working on actively today is its relationship to shoplifting and some crime syndicates that are taking advantage of that prop 47 loophole,” Newsom said. “There are efforts to tighten that up legislatively. Again, you can’t be ideological here. There’s common sense here and I will embrace common sense to make tweaks as necessary.”

Newsom also addressed another criticism that a past sexual indiscretion makes him unfit to be governor. In 2007, Newsom admitted to an affair with his campaign manager’s wife in mid-2005, which led to the separation from his first wife, Kimberly Guilfoyle. Newsom said Monday he’s atoned for the indiscretion.

“I acknowledged it, I apologized for it and I learned an enormous amount for it,” Newsom said. “And I am everyday trying to be a champion and a model not only for women and girls, and the crisis with men and boys in this state and this country.”

Newsom said he fully supports the #MeToo movement, calling it “a cultural moment and an opportunity to address some of the deeper systematic issues.”

Newsom said that the deeper issue is a dangerous notion of machismo afflicting men and boys, posited by his wife, filmmaker Jennifer Siebel-Newsom.

“The most dangerous words in the English language are ‘Man up, be a man, don't be a sissy.’ Young boys lose their emotion, they lose their empathy,” he said, adding that this leads to a whole host of societal problems, from school shootings and domestic violence to suicide among men.

Marinucci then asked Newsom “a question that is often asked of women. How are you going to balance being a good dad and a good governor?"

“You’re the first person to have ever asked me that question,” said Newsom, who has four children. “It reminds me of a conversation I had with Nancy Pelosi, who said when she first ran for Congress the number one question was, who is going to take care of the kids? Here's the difference. My kids are 1, 4, 6 and 8. Nancy’s were in college. It’s just an interesting fact talking about the misrepresentation of women.”

Newsom also said he was disgusted by the way Sarah Palin was “porno-fied and stripified" while she was John McCain’s running mate in 2008.

“There’s something profoundly significant in all of that,” he said.

Turning to Marinucci’s question, he said, “Nothing is more challenging in this race than raising young kids with a wife who is a rock star and is full-time and she expects the same of her husband.”

He parlayed the answer into a push for paid family leave, adding, “It’s incumbent on the next governor to do more for this state and its families.”

Monday’s forum was part of a series of five question-and-answer sessions with gubernatorial candidates sponsored by Politico and the University of San Francisco’s Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common Good.

Follow @MariaDinzeo

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