San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom finally answered direct questions about his disappearance last week after leaving the governor's race, sitting down with CBS reporter Hank Plante.
Plante quickly diverged from discussion of another looming half-billion-dollar budget deficit, and instead asked the questions that have been on everyone's minds: Where's Gavin?
It was, to say the least, awkward -- especially with Mayor MIA in the room.
According to Newsom he was out "three days," one with the flu and two spent in Hawaii with his family.
And as for blowing out of town of off events, Newsom said his chief of staff was fully informed, even if that information never got to his press secretary in time for a missed public appearance.
As for those public appearances, Newsom said he's been to no more or less than 69, though none of these appearances were announced to the press in the mayor's daily schedule and staffers could not provide Plante with a written record.
Which may be why the mayor has been so hard to find by the media -- which, he says, he doesn't read, singling out the San Francisco Chronicle. He complained, "Why aren't they talking about [Project Homeless Connect] in Golden Gate Park?"
However, the Chronicle did a story on just that appearance, and again, the event wasn't announced to other media organizations in the schedule.
He also made an unannounced appearance to light the snowflakes on Market Street, which the San Francisco Citizen captured in photos.
And NBC Bay Area spotted him mingling with the crowd at Tosca's 90th anniversary in North Beach, where he mingled with the crowd and made a proclamation honoring the historic North Beach bar. (The Chronicle didn't mention his appearance.)
As for that city budget that Newsom so desperately wanted to talk about? "Everything has to be on the table" for cuts as deep as 30 percent, claims the mayor. However, his new spokesperson contradicted that by saying that the administration would "hold the line" on police and fire service.
Jackson West wanted to know more about this mysterious "life coach" person Newsom reportedly spent time with in Hawaii.
