San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who famously - and illegally - began issuing same-sex marriage licenses back in 2004, has launched an exploratory bid for California’s gubernatorial seat. “His move placed the 40-year-old, two-term mayor out in front of a large Democratic field eyeing the race to succeed Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is barred by term limits from running again in 2010. Newsom said he expected to decide by year’s end whether to proceed with a full-fledged candidacy.” [LA Times] ...

SAN FRANCISCO – Mayor Gavin Newsom took his first public step toward seeking higher office Tuesday, filing papers to form an exploratory committee for a potential gubernatorial bid in 2010. Newsom, a Democrat best known for challenging California's ban on same-sex marriage in 2004, is six months into his second and final term, which expires in 2011. Speculation over whether he would run to succeed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has pursued him since before his re-election, but the mayor always deflected it by saying his attention remained fixed on the city. The establishment of an exploratory committee ...

California governor and former actor Arnold Schwarzenegger reiterated his support of gay marriage on yesterday’s Meet The Press: “I personally believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman. But at the same time I think that my, you know, belief, I don’t want to force on anyone else, so I think we should stay with the decision of the Supreme Court and move forward. There are so many other more important issues that we have to address in California. So I think to spend any time on this initiative I think is a waste of time.” [ ...

Log Cabin President Patrick Sammon confirmed to the Gay Patriot blog that John McCain held a meeting with the group in "the past couple of weeks" that didn't ever appear on the Senator's schedule. Said Sammon to Gay Patriot: "We’ve had a series of productive meetings with the campaign since Sen. McCain won the nomination—including a recent meeting with the Senator. We expect to have more conversations with the campaign as we head toward November." Gay Patriot: "According to published news reports the Sammon-McCain meeting would be the first face-to-face dialogue between a Republican Presidential standardbearer and the President of the ...