Gavin Newsom

Gavin Newsom is the son of an appellate court judge and came from an old, privileged San Francisco family. He graduated from Santa Clara University in 1989, and with a loan from the wealthy Getty family, he started the PlumpJack Wine Shop in 1992. The business eventually grew to a multi-million dollar empire with over 700 employees, including restaurants, theaters, a wine label, and a hotel/ski resort. He served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors from 1996 to 2004, where he became well-known for his "Care Not Cash" initiative, which reformed the city's homeless policy by slashing cash benefits to the homeless. Newsom was elected the 42nd mayor of San Francisco in 2004, the youngest mayor of that city in over a century. In February 2004, he made national headlines when he allowed same-sex couples to obtain marriage licenses.