Rippey-Tourk Incident
Newsom had an affair with his secretary Ruby Rippey Tourk—the wife of his campaign manager and good friend.
On January 31, 2007, Newsom's campaign manager and former deputy chief of staff, Alex Tourk, resigned after confronting Newsom over a sexual affair the mayor had with his wife in late 2005. At the time of the affair, Newsom was undergoing a divorce with Guilfoyle and Rippey-Tourk worked in Newsom's office as the Mayor's aide for commission appointments. After leaving her job in Newsom's office in August 2006, Tourk received $10,154 in catastrophic illness pay, which is usually reserved for those who are terminally ill; after an investigation by the San Francisco City attorney; however, Newsom and all those involved were later cleared of legal wrongdoing.
Newsom apologized for the affair at a news conference on February 1, 2007, saying, "I hurt someone I care deeply about, Alex Tourk, his friends and family, and that is something that I have to live with and something that I am deeply sorry for." After being approached by concerned colleagues, he announced that he would seek treatment for alcohol abuse. Newsom later said that the difficult times during the exposing of the affair refocused him and allowed him to better appreciate being mayor.
Read more about this topic: Mayoralty Of Gavin Newsom
Famous quotes containing the word incident:
“Every incident connected with the breaking up of the rivers and ponds and the settling of the weather is particularly interesting to us who live in a climate of so great extremes. When the warmer days come, they who dwell near the river hear the ice crack at night with a startling whoop as loud as artillery, as if its icy fetters were rent from end to end, and within a few days see it rapidly going out. So the alligator comes out of the mud with quakings of the earth.”
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