Monthly Archives: March 2016

The Newsom$ and the Getty$

Dan Walters, writing in The Sacramento Bee, highlights the relationship between the Gettys and the Newsoms:

Gavin Newsom Smirks

Gavin Newsom Smirks

“A $2 billion investment trust owned by William Getty’s father, composer Gordon Getty, and managed by Newsom’s father, William Newsom Jr., provided the initial financing for PlumpJack, named for a Gordon Getty opera.

“William Newsom Jr. resigned from the state appellate court, to which he had been named by lifelong friend Jerry Brown, to manage investments for Gordon Getty, also a friend dating to high school days

“Gavin Newsom’s grandfather, William Newsom Sr., was a close friend and fundraiser for Brown’s father, Pat Brown. And just as Pat Brown’s governorship ended, the sneior (sic!) Newsom was awarded a concession for the Squaw Valley ski area, developed by the state for the 1960 Winter Olympics, and site of the first PlumpJack restaurant. A few years later, Newsom swapped the concession for some state-owned land in Stockton, then sold it to a developer.

“During his first governship, Jerry Brown not only appointed Gavin Newsom’s father to superior and appellate court judgeships, but hired Carole Onorato, the judge’s sister, as an adviser.

“Meanwhile, Brown also had a close relationship with the Getty’s. Gordon Getty’s socialite wife, Ann, often acted as the young governor’s hostess and fundraiser.

“Essentially, Gavin Newsom is Brown’s quasi-nephew and, as mayor of San Francisco, originally planned to run against his quasi uncle for the governorship in 2010.”

Is Gavin Newsom’s marijuana ‘legalization’ initiative a scam?

it does not appear to be headed to the ballot soon as Chris Roberts in the SF Weekly reports:

” There’s no timetable on drafting legalization ballot language. There’s not even certainty as to who will write it — or if it happens at all in 2016. There are just questions — and one tall politician, surrounded by admirers in Carhartts, smelling faintly of terpenes.”