--- title: 10 Questions for Gavin Newsom | TIME description: California Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom talks to TIME about Citizenville, his book about open-source, digital government, and his politically charged days as San Francisco mayor. canonical: https://time.com/video/6GEOUnkY/ og:title: 10 Questions for Gavin Newsom og:description: California Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom talks to TIME about Citizenville, his book about open-source, digital government, and his politically charged days as San Francisco mayor. og:url: https://time.com/video/6GEOUnkY/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/6GEOUnkY/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 10 Questions for Gavin Newsom twitter:description: California Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom talks to TIME about Citizenville, his book about open-source, digital government, and his politically charged days as San Francisco mayor. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/6GEOUnkY/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # 10 Questions for Gavin Newsom > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Subscription: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME is a general-interest news organization founded in 1923, reporting on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world. A TIME subscription provides full access to that journalism in print and digital, from $20 a year, and can be cancelled at any time. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: 10 Questions for Gavin Newsom [Watch (HLS stream): 10 Questions for Gavin Newsom](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/6GEOUnkY.m3u8) (7:34)  _Published 2013-02-13. California Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom talks to TIME about Citizenville, his book about open-source, digital government, and his politically charged days as San Francisco mayor._ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:30 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Katie Couric Interviews Gov. Gavin Newsom ](/video/AWtLPVKq/) ### Katie Couric Interviews Gov. Gavin Newsom [California Gov. Gavin Newsom Says Federal Government Sent '170 Broken Ventilators'](/video/W4hvZSZ8/) ### California Gov. Gavin Newsom Says Federal Government Sent '170 Broken Ventilators' [Democrat Gavin Newsom Wins California Governor Primary But GOP Avoids Shutout](/video/Qdr1ak5G/) ### Democrat Gavin Newsom Wins California Governor Primary But GOP Avoids Shutout --- ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] Hi, I'm Belinda Luscombe. I'm an editor- at- large of Time. Our guest today is the former mayor of San Francisco. He's now Lieutenant Governor of the State of California. He's written a book, Citizenville, about how to make the political process more like Farmville. Gavin Newsome, welcome. Thanks for having me. So in your new book, Citizenville. Yes. You suggest one way to get people engaged in politics is the way that we got, people got engaged In Farmville. But, as I recall, Farmville did not make people actually wanna go out an harvest crops. [ LAUGH ] That's actually real work, so what is your idea? It's about meeting people where they already are. It's about utilizing the tools of technology that are being utilized day in and day out. Mobile, local, social, cloud. And begin to adapt a system of governance. That's currently top down and high optical. So you have this analogy about the vending machine versus the cloud. Yeah, you put, well, David Kettle wrote [ UNKNOWN ] Peace many, many moons ago, comparing government to a vending machine. You put in your dollar taxes and you get out police, fire, healthcare, defense. And if you don't like what you get, you shake the machine. The occupy movement, the Tea Party. It's a framework of scarcity, limited choices. Someone else decides, you put in the dollar taxes. To a new framework really in many ways inspired by Steve Jobs this notion of a platform. Remember when Jobs did the iPhone, he didn't come out with 800, 000 apps. There are over 800, 000 today. He came out with less than a dozen apps. He basically said, " I'll create the platform for third party developers, for the private citizens to engage in mashup ideas and create entertainment vehicles, educational vehicles, and the like ." And that's a framework of government that I think is very intriguing. The idea of a cloud is one where, as you say, everybody can build off the things that government provide. And you provide a lot of examples in your book of all these. Great datasets that people could be using. What would be an example of a way that somebody could use all this government data. Let me give just one quick example and it's relatively topical with the storms in, back East. In Boston, there's an app where you can adopt a fire hydrant. And what that in essence down is hold someone responsible for cleaning out the snow in around the fire hydrant to make sure that there's access for public safety perspective. In the past the city of Boston has been spending a lot of money and overtime trying to clear out the areas around fire hydrants after big storms. Just a simple, clean thing that's been done at local level. Crime maps. You're seeing these all across the country with app stores for cities. Eco finder app so you can find recycling centers in your neighborhood. So these are examples of people that have taken this open data and begin to translate into very tangible things that make a difference. In a very small way but a significant way in the life of their community. You said in your book that you are a fan of the Tea Party. [ LAUGH ] And one of the reasons you're a fan of the Tea Party is it's, well, I should let you explain but it's high level of engagement. Am I right? Yeah. I know what I admire about the Tea Party. I don't agree with the Tea Party in almost every instance I don't agree except I admire people that step up and step in. What I get frustrated by, is people sitting there on the sidelines, pointing fingers and talking about the way the world should be. So, at least the occupy movement and tea party, they're the genesis of, you know, similar distrust of government and frustration with government, again, that vending machine model. they're, they're willing to put themselves out and they're willing to exercise influence. The problem with engagement in this way, citizen engagement voter engagement is it tends to be the people who are, have the most extreme views that the most exercised and do the most work and, you know in this sort of. System of much more access that you would, those people would, you know? Flood the system. Do you not worry about grid locks? No, in fact it's, that's the system we have today right. So this is about actually, not having a frame work where the loudest voices take over. A district meeting or a town hall meeting. Or the special intrest folks come in and lock those voices out, because they have the real Keys to the lock of power and government. What they call the pursuasion industry. Not just special interest, but lobbyist which exist today. But it's about a devolution and, an involvement between the public and our government. Now, president Obama is trying. He has a petition campaign, we the people and you see how difficult that is Because, all of a sudden, he's having to deal with should we, deport, someone who, positions on guns don't necessarily relate. Can Texas secede? Right. And, can Texas secede, or should we have a Death Star? And you think, well, are we really spending our time on these issues? So it's difficult, do you wanna have a real conversation? You better be committed to that conversation. And there's some interesting examples and interestingly some Republicans are doing more on this than many of the Democrats, which is a point of emphasis in this book. The Democratic Party needs to wake up to the ability of the, to the utilization of these tools. So let's talk about your political career a bit. You were, you were Celebrated near San Francisco. You know, introduced, said you would marry same- sex couples. You know we did. And you did, and it worked out okay I guess in the end. But you did not make a lot of headway in the governortorial race. Why do you think that is? Oh God, I don't know. You know, going back you know 4036 couples got married over a course of a month and what was profound about that in, in many ways I thought And politically speaking that was the end. And it was just the beginning. I had just taken the oath of office. I was able to do something that some felt was audacious, and those were folks in my own party not just the other party. And, it's allowed me to process my political beliefs in a way that is good and in a way that's difficult to wit. Answer your question. When you start saying what you think, that comes at a big price and cost in politics. Well you are something of a political survivor. You survived a less noble scandal Yes. Where you slept with your campaign managers and friends wife. Yes. Do you feel like there's something about you that would've destroyed some politicians and has? No, I just... if you make [ UNKNOWN ] whatever aspect of your life, if you do something wrong. You gotta own up to it and you gotta learn from it and you gotta be better, and if you dont own up to it, you dont learn from it and you dont get better. Then people have the right not only to critiize but to dismiss. You've actually also been able to win elections in district two that a lot of republicans in them. in Yeah. Is that because of your business background. Maybe the business background I mean I you know mild at it you dont have to be [ UNKNOWN ] to be progressive I've you know that is who I am I'm progresive socially very progressive But I'm fiscally, you know, I don't wanna say conservative, moderate, I don't like the labels but use some common sense. You can't spend money you don't have and more is not always better. Plus, I married into a big republican family so, I'm sensitive. So, it's not the Gordon Gecko haircut? You don't think that helped? That has hurt me significantly. I don't wanna look at a focus group on it. I'll never have a focus group on it 'cause I don't wanna know. How are you enjoying being lieutenant governor? Does it come with the uniform? It's a different job. No uniform, no badges, no nothing. I love it. It's a blast. You did... that originally you really identified with Julie Lawee Strafer's character in veep who comes in every single episode and says. Did the president call? Brilliant writing. [ LAUGH ] I feel like I can contribute to the writing of of that show. It's fabulous. And one should not underestimate how familiar those themes are. [ LAUGH ] [ LAUGH ] The context of my current role. Gavin Newsom, thanks so very much. Thanks for having me. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"10 Questions for Gavin Newsom","description":"California Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom talks to TIME about Citizenville, his book about open-source, digital government, and his politically charged days as San Francisco mayor.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/6GEOUnkY/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2013-02-13T23:06:01.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/6GEOUnkY.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/6GEOUnkY/","duration":"PT7M34S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/6GEOUnkY/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```