Aiming to stake his claim to the tech-savvy young voters who helped elect President Obama, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, 41, took to the new media to formally announce he's running for governor - by directly addressing hundreds of thousands of supporters simultaneously via YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. "We can't afford to keep returning to the same old tired ideas and expect a different result," the Democrat told supporters in his three-minute YouTube announcement, part of the unprecedented "virtual fly-around" campaign announcement done entirely in the new media. The gubernatorial candidate's announcement video, which premiered on his Web page, GavinNewsom.com, utilizes three languages - English, Spanish and Mandarin - as well as images of solar technology, schools and health care facilities. It argued that Newsom - now in his second term as the city's mayor - has created jobs, helped San Francisco establish a rainy day reserve and budgetary "sound fiscal policy," and has tackled the challenge of providing universal health care to the uninsured. In his announcement, Newsom says his record on issues like environmental and green technology issues, health care and government spending "isn't conservative or progressive. It's just plain smart for everyone."
His advisers hope the unusual new media-based campaign rollout reaches an estimated half-million computer users in the first 24 hours - which would underscore what Newsom has called a "2.0 campaign" for the 2010 Democratic nomination. A key target will be the "millennial" voters, those technology-bred Californians born between 1982 and 2003 - part of the largest and most diverse generation in history - who helped boost Obama to the presidency, his advisers said.
His advisers hope the unusual new media-based campaign rollout reaches an estimated half-million computer users in the first 24 hours - which would underscore what Newsom has called a "2.0 campaign" for the 2010 Democratic nomination. A key target will be the "millennial" voters, those technology-bred Californians born between 1982 and 2003 - part of the largest and most diverse generation in history - who helped boost Obama to the presidency, his advisers said.
His actions as mayor to facilitate same-sex marriage in San Francisco have become the focus of years of legal wrangling - and his statements that gay marriage, "like it or not," would be the law of the land were used to good effect in ads that supported Proposition 8, which outlawed same-sex marriage and was approved by voters in November 2008. The city's sanctuary city policy - which has been widely criticized by Republicans.
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