It's an interesting question, one raised this week by SF Weekly's Ashley Harrell. See, way back in 2005, Newsom talked to the San Francisco Chronicle about his Arnold Drummond-like foster brother, whom he called Suliman Ashby. He brought him up as an explanation as to why he's comfortable sipping malt liquor and just chilling 'til the next episode on the streets of Bayview. "He was like a brother," Newsom told the Chron. "I spent a lot of time with him in Marin City, just hanging out with the guys, screwing around. I'm convinced this is why I'm so comfortable in Bayview."

Hm.

Anyway, said foster brother, with whom Newsom was allegedly very close, was troubled. So much so, in fact, that he's been in the clink of years. Or so the story goes. Newsom once again "brought up his foster brother — then naming him as Stephen Ashby — while campaigning for governor in San Jose, and claimed Ashby had been in and out of San Quentin for selling crack to support his five children."

Curious, Harrell wanted to find out more about Ashby's stint at San Quentin. "The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has no record of any inmate with that last name," she reports. And, well, it goes downhill from there. After receiving a few more alternative spellings of the foster brother's name, Harrell worries that this (alleged) foster brother might be Newsom's own Joe the Plumber. Read all about it here.