San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's re-election campaign manager resigned today after confronting the mayor about an affair Newsom had with his wife while she worked in the mayor's office, City Hall sources said.
Alex Tourk, 39, who served as Newsom's deputy chief of staff before becoming his campaign manager in September, confronted the mayor after his wife, Ruby Rippey-Tourk, told him of the affair as part of a rehabilitation program she has been undergoing for substance abuse, said the sources, who had direct knowledge of today's meeting.
Rippey-Tourk, 34, was the mayor's appointments secretary from the start of his administration in 2004 until last spring. She told her husband that the affair with Newsom was short-lived and happened about a year and a half ago, while the mayor was in divorce proceedings with his then-wife, Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle, said the sources, who spoke on condition they not be identified.
Alex Tourk "confronted the mayor on the issue this afternoon, expressed his feeling about the situation in an honest and pointed way and resigned,'' said one source close to Tourk and his wife.
Tourk's resignation was announced in a statement that Newsom's campaign released this afternoon. The statement quoted Tourk as saying only that he was resigning for "personal reasons."
Wow. Gavin's turning into quite a train wreck. Details here from the San Francisco Chronicle.
Just this morning, the Chronicle's Matier & Ross reported:
"I've basically written myself off of any prospects of running for any different office,'' Newsom said during a Reuters Second Life Webcast from the recent world economic summit in Davos, Switzerland.
"I certainly won't be appointed by any administration or special councils because I'm a time bomb and too controversial,'' Newsom said, referring to the political storm that arose after he unilaterally authorized gay marriages in San Francisco.
And it's not just the Republican critics that Newsom was talking about.
"God as my witness ... one of the three Democrats you mentioned as presidential candidates (we're told it was Barack Obama) will not be photographed with me, will not be in the same room as me, even though I've done fundraisers for that particular person not once but twice, because of this issue."
He's also been in the news recently for bungling the Yale beatings case and showing up drunk at a hospital after a cop was shot to death (2nd item). Now I guess he's got bigger problems.