Gavin Newsom is about to face a reckoning over his 2007 affair with Ruby Rippey Gibney.
At the time, Newsom was mayor of San Francisco. Gibney was his appointments secretary, and was married to his campaign manager and friend, Alex Tourk.
Gibney has said over the years that she did not see herself as a victim. But now she is set to tell her full story to Vanity Fair. One way or another, Newsom is going to have to deal with it.
Newsom has evaded any serious political consequences for his behavior. He acknowledged the affair, apologized for it, and created the impression that he would enter a rehab program for alcoholism.
But when he ran for governor in 2018, he admitted that he had not gone to rehab, after all.
Newsom has since bristled at mention of the affair, suggesting voters have already delivered their verdict. But that was in deep-blue California. It’s a different story in a national race.
American voters are more tolerant of marital indiscretions by politicians than they were, but there are still some boundaries around personal conduct in public life, and the question is whether Newsom violated them.
The most important issue is consent. (Graham Platner found that out the hard way.)
Consent becomes morally fraught when a lowly aide faces the advances of a powerful politician. That may be the most important issue in the Newsom case.
There are other unwritten rules. Voters tolerated Willie Brown’s relationship with a young Kamala Harris because it was open, even brazen: His estranged wife seemed to tolerate it.
But when politicians lie to their spouses, and the public, that is another story. Betrayal — another theme in the Newsom story — leaves a lasting impression of bad character.
Voters can be fickle about sexual morality. After Louisiana’s David Vitter was linked to a prostitution scandal, he won re-election to the Senate, but lost a race for governor.
One sin voters never forgive is using public money to pursue an affair, or cover one up — or to reward a lover. That crosses into outright corruption.
Public figures are allowed to have private lives, even adventurous ones. (This is California.)
But they have to tell voters the truth. That is the test Newsom will face.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
