One of the most damaging scandals of Gavin Newsom’s political career is about to return to the national spotlight at a time when many expect the California governor to begin positioning himself for a run for the White House.
Nearly two decades after the controversy first erupted, one of the central figures who has largely remained silent now reportedly prepares to tell her side of the story for the first time.
Ruby Rippey-Gibney, the former San Francisco City Hall aide whose affair with then-Mayor Gavin Newsom became one of the biggest political scandals in California history, is expected to break her silence in an upcoming Vanity Fair article, according to The California Post.
The publication reported that Rippey-Gibney plans to recount her perspective on the affair that shook San Francisco politics in 2007 and threatened to derail Newsom’s political future.
The timing is notable, as Newsom is widely expected to pursue the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028 after reaching his term limit as California governor.
Political analyst David Latterman told The California Post it is difficult to predict the political impact without knowing what Rippey-Gibney plans to reveal.
“What would be really sad is if Democrats make a bigger deal out of this than Republicans for self-flagellation,” Latterman said.
Newsom publicly acknowledged the affair in early 2007 after his longtime political adviser and campaign manager, Alex Tourk, discovered the then-mayor had engaged in a relationship with Rippey-Gibney, who was both Tourk’s wife and one of Newsom’s employees at City Hall.
Tourk resigned after confronting Newsom.
In a televised news conference, Newsom accepted responsibility and apologized.
“I want to make it clear that everything you’ve heard and read is true, and I am deeply sorry about that,” Newsom said at the time.
The affair generated national headlines because it involved not only the wife of one of Newsom’s closest political advisers but also a subordinate employee, raising questions about workplace power dynamics.
As the controversy intensified, Newsom announced he was giving up alcohol.
“My problems with alcohol are not an excuse for my personal lapses in judgment,” he said.
“Upon reflection with friends and family this weekend, I have come to the conclusion that I will be a better person without alcohol in my life.”
During his 208 campaign for governor, Newsom told The Sacramento Bee that he never entered rehab, saying he instead stopped drinking, sought counseling and later resumed consuming alcohol.
“No, there’s no rehab. I just stopped,” Newsom said.
“There was no treatment, no nothing related to any of that stuff.”
Despite widespread predictions that the scandal would end his political career, Newsom won reelection as mayor later that year before going on to win statewide elections as lieutenant governor in 2010 and governor in 2018.
The scandal also tested his relationship with future wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom.
Shortly after the affair became public, she told the San Francisco Chronicle, “There are two sides to every story.”
She also said, “If people did research into the scandal … the woman is the culprit.”
Siebel Newsom later apologized for those remarks after they drew criticism from observers who argued they unfairly shifted blame to Rippey-Gibney despite the professional relationship between her and Newsom.
Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown told The California Post he was surprised by the affair when it became public but argued that modern voters are generally less focused on politicians’ personal conduct than previous generations.
For years, Rippey-Gibney has rarely spoken publicly about the relationship.
During Newsom’s 2018 gubernatorial campaign, however, she wrote on Facebook that she did not consider herself a victim under the #MeToo movement, The New York Post reported.
“Yes, I was a subordinate, but I was also a free-thinking, 33-year-old adult married woman & mother,” she wrote, adding that she struggled with alcoholism and self-destructive behavior during that period of her life.
