Experts Expound

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has jumped into the governor's race. What are his chances?"

I am Governor Jerry Brown
My aura smiles
And never frowns
Soon I will be president…

Zero

Zero or maybe 10 percent.

Let's hope his chances are horrid. Do we really want a man who cuckolded a member of his own staff representing us as our Governor? I should hope we'd find someone with this lack of ethics and morals abhorrent as a leader or example for our youth. San Francisco can keep him.

Gavin (and Antonio) will pay special attention to the 18-29 year-old female voters, of course, which just helps Jerry Brown. The more people in the race the more it helps JB.

He's the surefire frontrunner … until anybody else jumps in.

If we assume Jerry Brown runs, it depends on how many Democrats are in the field. People know Brown better than anyone else and will vote for or against him. One person getting all the anti-Brown vote could conceivably win a primary. Two or more splitting it up… forget it.

Newsom is Obama and Jerry Brown is Hillary. Change will continue to be in the wind in 2010.

He's now the favorite. The same sex marriage issue cuts both ways in a general election, but it's a big help in the primary. And a general election campaign will almost certainly favor the Democratic nominee.

Slim to none…and Slim just got a City-paid flight to Honduras.

Zero. Poizner, Whitman, et al can only dream that Newsom would be the nominee.

In a multi-candidate field, anything is possible. He represents youth and freshness vs. 35 years of experience.
Nil – who was the last NorCal governor?

If the AG is in, it's hard to see anyone else having a chance. If the AG takes a pass, he's got as good a shot as any of the 27 other men in the race . . .

His chances are zippo outside the City & County of San Francisco…..

Slim and none once Mayor Villaraigosa and Jerry Brown enter the race.

For all you Sacramento-area Republicans out there: Newsom is Doug Ose. Jerry Brown is Tom McClintock. Villaraigosa is Ted Terbolizard. Whitman is Charlie Brown. Doolittle is actually more like Gray Davis but we are about seven years off on that one….Moral of the story is that under these conditions only McClintock will be Governor by a wide margin.

No chance. He will soon find that the San Francisco mindset isn't the mainstream for most Californians.

The people from whom we sought opinions:: Elizabeth Ashford, Andrew Acosta, A.G. Block, Mark Bogetich, Barry Brokaw, Morgan Crinklaw, J Dale Debber, Peter DeMarco, Jim Evans, Kathy Fairbanks, Jeff Fuller, Rex Frazier, Ken Gibson, Evan Goldberg, Deborah Gonzalez, Sandy Harrison, Bob Hertzberg, Jason Kinney, Mike Madrid, Nicole Mahrt, Steve Maviglio, Adam Mendelsohn, Barbara O'Connor, Bill Packer, Kassy Perry, Jack Pitney, Adam Probolsky, Tony Quinn, Matt Rexroad, Matt Ross, Roger Salazar, Dan Schnur, Will Shuck, Ralph Simoni, Sam Sorich, Ray Sotero, Garry South, Kevin Spillane, Rich Zeiger.