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Mayor of SF screws his campaign manager
's wife 
| quote: | S.F. Mayor Gavin Newsom apologizes for affair with wife of key aide
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said this morning that reports of an affair with an assistant in his office 18 months ago are true and apologized for the ``personal lapse of judgment.''
``I want to make it clear that everything you've heard and read is true, and I am deeply sorry about that,'' Newsom said about the affair with the aide, who is also the wife of his former campaign manager.
The usually smiling Newsom appeared grim and would not take any questions from the dozens of reporters who packed his City Hall office.
Newsom apologized to Alex Tourk, who resigned Wednesday after reportedly confronting the mayor about the affair, and Ruby Rippey-Tourk. He said ``they are friends of mine.''
Newsom also apologized to his staff and his family.
``I'm also sorry that I let the people of San Francisco down,'' he said.
Newsom dismissed reporters questions about calls for him to resign. He said he would work hard to restore trust of San Franciscans and continue his daily work as mayor.
Newsom's comments came within hours of Tourk's resignation. According to a statement Wednesday from Tourk, who served as a key deputy chief of staff before moving to Newsom's re-election campaign, he resigned for ``personal reasons.''
But a City Hall insider on Wednesday did not deny reports that the resignation came after a confrontation with the mayor.
Neither Tourk nor his wife could be reached for comment.
Ruby Rippey-Tourk had worked in the mayor's office as an appointments secretary until last year. At the time of the alleged affair, Newsom was in the middle of a highly-public divorce from Kimberly Guilfoyle.
It's an election year in San Francisco but, so far, no major competition has emerged to take the mayor on for a second term. He has enjoyed unusually high approval ratings during his three years in office.
But his personal life has been beset with turmoil, starting with a lengthy separation from cable TV legal commentator Guilfoyle, who has since remarried and lives in New York City. Newsom's divorce became final a year ago.
Over the past year, Newsom, 39, has been linked to a series of girlfriends, including television actress and Scientology supporter Sofia Milos and a 20-year-old restaurant hostess and model. Newsom has expressed frustration with the media's fascination with his love life.
Newsom reportedly has a new girlfriend whom he took to Switzerland last week to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos.
It's a far cry from the early days of his tenure when he and then-wife Kimberly lighted up the pages of Harper's Bazaar and set tongues wagging coast to coast after the couple appeared in sexually-tinged magazine photos of the duo on the floor of the Gordon and Ann Getty mansion. The magazine heralded them as the ``New Kennedys.''
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Last edited by R!CH on Feb-02-2007 at 12:21
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