Although that governor's race thing didn't work out, Mayor Gavin Newsom is now "entertaining the possibility" of being your next lieutenant governor. According to Monday's Matier and Ross, his state-level career re-imagining came after a recent poll showed he could very well win.
The poll, conducted last month of 600 likely Democratic voters statewide, showed Newsom receiving 33 percent of the vote, compared to 17 percent for Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn and 15 percent for state Sen. Dean Florez from Kern County. The poll showed 35 percent of voters were undecided.
Although Newsom told reports, "I have had an extraordinary three and a half months with my family, and spending time getting into the weeds of city government, and I'm really enjoying myself," he would, of course, need some serious convincing/ego massaging/dollars to run. While his heart still throbs for San Francisco, Newsom, it seems, misses being "a part of the discussion of the narrative of California's state and its future."
What does the Lt. Governor do, you ask? Not much. Not much at all.
Seeing as how Gov. Schwarzenegger killed the budget of the lieutenant governor's office, "[t]here's only a handful of people there, and one is always questioning the merits of having a lieutenant governor with no real authority and no real portfolio besides sitting on some statewide seats," Newsom bemoaned.
But whatever one thinks of Newsom, it would be nice to have him snooping around Sacramento, especially if billionaire Meg Whitman (oy) takes control.
