Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday that he is nervous about the public response to his forthcoming autobiography\u2019s candid details about his life and those around him.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust being honest \u2014 it comes with a cost,\u201d said Newsom, who made the rounds at a Democratic National Committee meeting in Los Angeles on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Newsom, who already acknowledged that he is considering a 2028 bid for president, said he didn\u2019t hold back in the book. His co-writer, former Los Angeles Times reporter Mark Arax, told the governor that he wouldn\u2019t be a part of the project unless Newsom was forthcoming.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then you read stuff and [wonder] \u2018Oh, how\u2019s this going to read?\u2019\u201d said Newsom, who expects that conservative commentators will attack him over some passages. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not a politician\u2019s book, it\u2019s not a book that you would expect me\u201d to write, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many of the turbulent and personally traumatic chapters of the California politician\u2019s life are already well-documented. In 2007, Newsom, then mayor of San Francisco, acknowledged that he had an affair with the wife of a longtime aide.<\/p>\n
Newsom\u2019s mother, Tessie Newsom, ended her life in 2002 at age 55 through assisted suicide<\/a> after a long fight with breast cancer.<\/p>\n The governor has also talked about growing up watching his mother struggle to make ends meet, and how oil executive Gordon Getty and his wife, Ann, gave him experiences his parents could not afford, including an African safari when he was a teen.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the third book for Newsom and comes at a pivotal time. Not only is the California governor considering a White House run, he\u2019s become a persistent foil to President Trump and vocal critic to his controversial policies, including the administration\u2019s immigration raids in Los Angeles and failure to provide adequate federal assistance to California wildfire victims. <\/p>\n A promotional book tour would offer a chance to meet with voters in swing states and to appear on a range of media platforms. A memoir specifically allows the governor to reintroduce himself on his own terms at a moment when national interest in his political future is growing.<\/p>\n Newsom\u2019s visit to the DNC meeting was one of his few public events since news broke that his former chief of staff, Dana Williamson, was arrested on federal corruption charges. <\/p>\n Williamson\u2019s attorney McGregor Scott, a former U.S. attorney in Sacramento, told The Times in November that federal authorities had approached Williamson more than a year ago seeking help with some kind of investigation of the governor. Newsom has not been accused of wrongdoing.<\/p>\n Some aspects of the case described in the Williamson indictment match that of a controversial sex discrimination investigation that the state of California led into one of the world\u2019s largest video game companies, Santa-Monica based Activision Blizzard Inc.<\/p>\n Newsom told The Times on Thursday that he doesn\u2019t know whether the U.S. Department of Justice is looking into the state\u2019s handling of the Activision case.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know any details about it, but I\u2019m aware of the subject matter, absolutely,\u201d Newsom said.<\/p>\n In 2021, the state sued Activision, accusing it of discriminating against women and ignoring reports of egregious sexual harassment. One of the lawyers overseeing the case for the state was fired by the Newsom administration. Her chief deputy resigned and alleged that she was doing so to protest alleged interference from Newsom\u2019s office in the investigation, a claim that the governor\u2019s office denied. <\/p>\n Newsom\u2019s visit to the Democratic National Committee meeting on Thursday was somewhat of a victory lap for the governor after passage of Proposition 50, the ballot measure that redrew California\u2019s congressional maps to favor Democratic candidates in next year\u2019s midterm elections.<\/p>\n The governor proposed the measure after President Trump asked Texas to redraw its congressional maps in an effort to keep Republican control of Congress.<\/p>\n Walking through the hallways of the InterContinental hotel, Newsom stopped every few yards for conversations with committee members at Thursday\u2019s conference or to pose for photos. He also huddled with a group from Missouri, where Democrats are seeking to overturn new districts created by Republicans.<\/p>\n The governor told reporters that he would help fundraise for the Missouri Democrats\u2019 ballot measure.<\/p>\n His forthcoming book,<\/a> which will be published in February, is intensely personal, he said in a promotional video released this week. Many people see only his \u201cstark white shirt, blue suit and, yeah, the gelled hair, and they think \u2018Oh, I know this guy,\u2019\u201d he said in the video.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a story about a kid who always felt like he wasn\u2019t quite enough,\u201d Newsom said in the video. \u201cThis is a truly vulnerable book, it was incredibly hard, even painful, to write.\u201d<\/p>\n Newsom\u2019s first book, \u201cCitizenville, How to Take the Town Square Digital and Reinvent Government,\u201d came out in 2013 after he\u2019d been elected lieutenant governor. He released a children\u2019s book<\/a>, \u201cBen and Emma\u2019s Big Hit\u201d in 2021 about a young boy\u2019s love of baseball and attempts to overcome his struggles with dyslexia. The story was inspired by Newsom\u2019s own history with dyslexia<\/a>.<\/p>\n Last week, Newsom traveled to Capitol Hill to meet with lawmakers and renew calls for billions in federal recovery aid after the Los Angeles fires.<\/p>\n On Thursday, Newsom announced he will deliver his final State of the State address Jan. 8 as he begins his final year as governor. Newsom has delivered his remarks in writing the last five years, breaking with the decades-old tradition of an annual in-person address to lawmakers in the state Capitol. His most recent written State of the State came unusually late, in September.<\/p>\n \u201cOver the past seven years, we have tackled some of the state\u2019s most significant problems and improved countless lives in this miraculous state, blessed and challenged by Mother Nature and enriched by ingenuity and hard work,\u201d Newsom wrote to legislative leaders Thursday in calling for his address to be delivered in person during a joint session of the Legislature.<\/p>\n