Speculation time, folks! Los Angeles politics blog Mayor Sam's Sister City reports that SF Mayor Gavin Newsom will (allegedly!) announce his withdrawl from the California gubernatorial race this afternoon. Mayor Sam says:

We don't know if this is a Halloween prank (and if it is it's not mine cause I only do April Fools Jokes) but sources in the Capital are telling us that a handful of high profile donors to candidate for Governor Gavin Newsom say the San Francisco Mayor is going to announce this afternoon his withdrawl from the race, after failing to gain traction in the race.

Is it true? Who's to say. Well, aside from Newsom himself, that is. At present, the news is riddled with oil spill coverage, so we have yet to hear of any announcement. (Though big wonk news is, typically, saved for late afternoon on Fridays.) And Newsom-dropping-out-of-the-race stories have turned into this year's Jennifer-Aniston-is-pregnant news items. (Wow, that was a dated reference.) So.... we shall see.

Anyway, SFist asked Newsom for comment. We'll update as soon as we hear back from team Gav.

Update: It's official. Newsom dropped out of the race.