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By Cecilia Vega
San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is in the nation’s capital this week, where he is meeting with some of the biggest names in the Democratic Party to talk up the city’s myriad efforts to combat global warming before he heads off to Switzerland to attend the prestigious World Economic Forum.
Newsom spent Tuesday on Capitol Hill, where he plugged the city’s universal health care program during a meeting with Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and the city’s environmental initiatives in a meeting with Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.
But the Democratic mayor’s meetings with his party’s elite didn’t end there.
Newsom talked about greening issues with John Podesta, who heads the liberal Washington think tank the Center for American Progress and who also worked as former President Bill Clinton’s chief of staff. He is slated to have face time with Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein of California and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco to talk about local initiatives, such as the cleanup of the former naval shipyard in Hunters Point.
The mayor also will join Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and other Senate Democrats for a roundtable discussion on a variety of topics, including global warming.
On Tuesday evening, Newsom attended a reception in his honor hosted by Platinum Advisers, whose chief executive, Darius Anderson, is a Democratic fundraiser and one of California’s best-known lobbyists. Newsom was scheduled to attend a fundraiser at the swanky Mayflower Hotel with former President Bill Clinton for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential bid.
Today, Newsom will make a brief appearance at the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington before he and his fiancee, Jennifer Siebel, leave for Davos, Switzerland. It will be the mayor’s fourth annual trip to the economic summit.
"He will be leading a distinguished panel of business leaders, elected officials and philanthropists in a workshop on local responses to global climate change," Newsom spokesman Nathan Ballard said.
A team of aides traveled with Newsom to Washington, including Ballard; Newsom’s newly appointed director of climate protection initiatives, Wade Crowfoot; and his director of governmental affairs, Nancy Kirschner Rodriguez.
City funds will cover the costs of Newsom’s trip to Washington, including his aides’ travel expenses. His trip to Davos is being paid for by the World Economic Forum, though Newsom will pay for his airline tickets, Ballard said.
"That will not be a taxpayer expense," he said.
Newsom tapped his allies on the Board of Supervisors - Carmen Chu, Michela Alioto-Pier and Sean Elsbernd - to be the city’s acting mayors during his absence.
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