While Getty launched Newsom's entrepreneurial career, another powerful San Franciscan launched his political career. In 1996, Brown appointed Newsom to the Parking and Traffic Commission. He named him to an open seat on the Board of Supervisors the following year.
But at the height of the dot-com boom, in 2000, an anti-Brown backlash swept the city. Enraged over unchecked development and empowered by a new system of districtwide, rather than citywide, supervisorial elections, an anti-Brown slate of liberal supervisors was swept into office. Among them was Gonzalez.
Brown found himself isolated. And so did Newsom.
Newsom soon ran into problems with his board colleagues, with whom he must now forge a new relationship. Rather than risk rejection from the more liberal board, in 2002 Newsom took his homeless initiative, Care Not Cash, directly to voters. The program would slash general assistance payments to the homeless and provide services instead. Voters approved it overwhelmingly, but a court ordered that only the supervisors could set such policy.
Once back at the board, the plan stalled, as did a compromise version. Last month, Newsom went straight to the voters again, with an anti-panhandling measure that the board probably would not have supported. Again, voters approved it.
But supervisors now bracing for a Newsom administration say they hope he will learn to compromise rather than work around them. Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval, also among the slate elected in 2000, said Newsom has not previously attempted much compromise with the more liberal slate on the board, and they have not sought Newsom's opinions either. That will have to change.
"Most of us are open to working with him but ... none of us want to be spending our lives at City Hall if nothing is going to get done," Sandoval said. "It's impossible to achieve much progress without the mayor's cooperation. On the other hand, it's not very easy to achieve much without the board's cooperation. We're both in a bind."
Among the 11-member Board of Supervisors, only two endorsed Newsom. The divisions were keenly apparent Tuesday night.
When Gonzalez took the podium to concede defeat, Gonzalez's board colleague Chris Daly warned Newsom of the strength of the opposition he could face.
"If he wants to give big breaks to downtown business ... if he wants to scapegoat immigrants and the poor ... we'll take his legs out," Daly bellowed to hoots of approval.
