Gavin Newsom's lack of fundraising skills led to his campaign's demise

“With a young family and the responsibilities at city hall, I have found it impossible to commit the time required to complete this effort the way it needs to—and should be—done,” he said.

Although family and city duties require large amounts of time and commitment, they are not the sole reasons why the San Francisco mayor had to drop out.

Weeks before he dropped out, hints that Newsom’s campaign was having a difficult time fundraising started to come out. The candidate who raised almost $6 million for his 2003 mayoral campaign, only received a little over $3 million for his gubernatorial bid. The first signs of trouble came in June, when the California secretary of state’s office reported that Newsom had raised $1.2 million, while the other Democrat in the race, Attorney General Jerry Brown, has already raised $7.4 million—that was before Brown had even formed an exploratory committee for his campaign.

“Money is the mother’s milk of politics and nowhere is that more important than California,” said Democratic strategist Chris Lehane in The Washington Post. “For the mayor, having a young family and managing a city in challenging economic times translated into a real uphill battle when it came to rasing dough.”

But not being able to raise dough went beyond just bad economic times. Political insiders and those close to Newsom said he disliked asking for money from politicians and hated fundraising functions. He did reach out to former president Bill Clinton, who is not a fan of Brown, but the move did little good.

A column by C.W. Nevius of the San Francisco Chronicle pointed out how Newson shied away from reaching out to the public and politicians for support, citing that Newsom’s self-absorption got in the way.

“And, of course, the ultimate schmoozing opportunity is asking for political contributions. Newsom hated making those calls, feeling that selling himself was demeaning, but that’s how politics work.”

The latest Field Poll served as an indicator that Newsom’s campaign was heading in the wrong direction. Brown received 47 percent of Democratic primary voters, while Newsom trailed with 27 percent, with 26 percent undecided.

“Newsom’s campaign wasn’t sputtering. It never got off the ground,” said Nevius.

One aspect of Newsom’s now defunct campaign that was widely ignored was its own internal tensions. One of Newsom’s first moves for his campaign was to hire the Democratic consultant Garry South as his campaign manager. South helped the last Democrat governor, Gray Davis, get elected in 1998. But discord between South and Newsom’s longtime political consultant Eric Jaye led to Jaye eventual leaving the campaign in July. Now, many feel that Newsom should have stuck with what got him where he is—and that was Jaye.

                                        

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