Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco, Ca

This city did not wait for Washington's health care overhaul. Most uninsured adults here are already reaping the benefits of a government-run health care program — seeing doctors, filling prescriptions, and getting surgeries they could not otherwise afford. Healthy San Francisco is the nation's first city-run universal health care plan. While not insurance and not valid outside the city, it does illustrate how some hotly debated elements of plans being considered on Capitol Hill might play out. In just over two years, the $126 million program has won over its target population, and now covers about 48,000 people — more than two-thirds of San ... Read Full Story

Besides his Patrick Bateman hair, obviously. The San Francisco mayor and obvious prick went into hiding after mysteriously quitting the governor's race , and his silence-breaking TV interview was a mess. So, like, you might assume that interviewer Hank Plante would ask about this mysterious absense from all his official events, and his unannounced, Mark Sanford-style trip to Hawaii. Read Full Story

Attorney General Jerry Brown has relied on a stealth fundraising campaign and his near universal name recognition to wipe out the field seven months ahead of California's Democratic primary for governor. That has left the 72-year-old political icon, who already has served two terms as California governor, as the party's presumed candidate for governor in 2010, even though Brown has not officially declared. It's not the position in which the majority party in a state as diverse as California had expected to find itself, just a year after a grassroots groundswell helped give Barack Obama the biggest margin of victory in a California presidential ... Read Full Story

San Francisco supervisors have overturned the mayor's veto of a controversial ordinance involving how the city deals with illegal immigrant minors facing felony charges. After Mayor Gavin Newsom last month vetoed a measure that would prohibit local authorities from turning over minors to immigration officials until the minors have been convicted, city supervisors on Tuesday voted 8-3 to override the veto. Newsom and city supervisors have been at odds over the issue since the mayor ordered a change in the city's policy in 2008 after Edwin Ramos, an illegal immigrant, was charged with the fatal shootings of a man and his two sons. Ramos ... Read Full Story

Unable to move beyond his ultra-liberal image and far behind his rival in fundraising, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom dropped his bid to become governor, leaving former governor Jerry Brown as the only Democrat in the race to succeed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger next year. Citing "a young family and responsibilities at City Hall," Newsom announced Friday that he was quitting the gubernatorial race to spend more time with his wife and newborn daughter. The telegenic mayor tried to connect with voters at town hall forums across the state, but never finessed his message. He excitedly skipped from topic to topic, promising never to blunt ... Read Full Story