SAN FRANCISCO — Democrat Gavin Newsom, the front-runner in California’s governor’s race, said Monday that he “learned an enormous amount” from his past omission of sexual transgressions while mayor of San Francisco more than a decade ago, saying, “I applaud women for coming forward” in as part of the #MeToo movement.

Newsom, considered a rising star in the Democratic Party, was questioned about his past scandal at a forum sponsored by POLITICO and the University of San Francisco’ s McCarthy for Public Service. He spoke in the greatest detail yet about bombshell revelations that erupted when he was the mayor of San Francisco and nearly derailed his career.

California’s lieutenant governor became the subject of national headlines in February 2007 when it was revealed he had a brief affair with a subordinate, Ruby Rippey-Tourk, who was also the wife of his chief campaign adviser. At the time, he was separated from his first wife, Kimberly Guilfoyle, now a Fox News host.

Rippey-Tourk worked as Newsom’s appointment secretary. Her husband, Alex Tourk, resigned from Newsom’s campaign after the revelation.

“I acknowledged it. I apologized for it. I learned an enormous amount from it,’’ Newsom said Monday. “We were very open and honest about it. … And I am, every day, trying to be a champion and a model” for not only girls, but young boys as the society tries to “get to the roots causes.”

The #MeToo movement represents "a profound opportunity to address deeper issues,” he said, adding: "It’s not a political movement, it’s a cultural movement.”

“I applaud women from coming forward," he said, referencing the effort known as #WeSaidEnough in Sacramento — in which hundreds of women have come forward to express solidarity with women who have reported sexual harassment in the state capital. Newsom said he also gave credit to “the legislature and the [Democratic Party] Women’s Caucus for stepping up on whistleblower legislation — and supporting the efforts for independent investigations."

Newsom said, "Of course" when asked if as governor he would sign legislation — approved unanimously by the California State Assembly on Monday — to protect and provide more services to whistleblowers in the State Capital who report harassment issues.

Asked if there were any other incidents related to sexual transgressions since those headlines which could emerge in the race and disqualify him, Newsom said firmly, “Absolutely not.”

But Newsom sidestepped a question about whether some Democrats are correct in suggesting that any sexual transgression — even those committed years ago and out of office, in the case of former Minnesota Sen. Al Franken — should be a disqualifier for public office. He declined to comment on Franken’s resignation, saying, “Good people can disagree on that."

The comments represented Newsom’s most detailed to date in addressing the issue in his campaign to become California’s next governor.

Newsom noted that his own wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, has been a champion on feminist issues and issues of sexual harassment, and he credited her with continuing to advance his own enlightenment — and that of the nation.

The comments addressed an issue that many said would end his political career in 2007, when he was faced with an army of reporters at San Francisco City Hall amid shocking revelations about his affair. “Everything you’ve heard and read is true,” Mr. Newsom told reporters. “And I am deeply sorry about that.”

He also apologized to Tourk, his friend and campaign manager. “I’ve hurt someone I care deeply about, Alex Tourk,” the mayor said. “And that is something I have to live with.”

In the wake of the reports, Democrat Newsom announced he would seek treatment for alcohol abuse with Mimi Silbert, head of San Francisco’s Delancey Street Foundation.

Newsom — who divorced Guilfoyle in 2006 — married actress, filmmaker and businesswoman Jennifer Siebel in July 2008 in a Montana wedding. He now has four children with Siebel Newsom — two daughters, Montana, 8 and Brooklyn, 4, and two sons, Hunter, 6, and Dutch, 1.

Since then, his wife’s documentary, “Miss Representation,” has spawned a non-profit educational drive to educate young boys and girls about sexual stereotyping. “The Invisible War,” which she co-produced, was nominated for an Academy Award and prompted a congressional inquiry on sexual assault in the military.

Recently, Siebel Newsom wrote about the #MeToo scandal on Huffington Post, saying, “Based on my years in the industry and unfortunately, my own personal experience with Harvey Weinstein, I can tell you that I believe every single word that was written in the extremely disturbing, but not all that shocking … not all that shocking because very similar things happened to me.”

Source: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/05/gavin-newsom-california-scandal-metoo-393053