Gavin Newsom Is No Longer 'Mayor Twitter'

​There was a time when Mayor Gavin Newsom used Twitter so often he required an @intervention.

He tweeted out his daughter's birth ("Not sure [Jen] is happy I am on twitter"), sent out a tweet urging support for Barack Obama in the midst of a tense city Budget Committee meeting, and, one time, fired off 68 consecutive messages reading "thanks" or "thank you" in one day alone.

Newsom's addiction to Twitter, it seems, has gone the way of his gubernatorial aspirations. You know it's still there -- but it's not in the forefront anymore.

At this point in calendar 2009, Newsom had amassed more than 500 tweets. At this point in calendar 2010, however, @GavinNewsom has only sent out around 265 tweets. And a hefty number of this year's tweeting revolved around the Giants.

The two weeks he took off from Twitter during his meltdown following the abrupt breakup of his gubernatorial campaign seem to have transformed his online habits. Newsom came back a leaner, meaner tweeter, and captured the lieutenant governor's seat.

Perhaps the less a politician tweets, the more effective he is. Abel Maldonado coyly wrote "First Tweet Ever" on June 9, and followed it with 519 since. You know how that turned out.

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