The Afternoon News Links - May 4, 2009

• Mayor Gavin Newsom travels to Fresno to make his case for California governor.
• Assemblywoman Fiona Ma of San Francisco sees a problem with the May budget reform measures.  Click here for the details.
  
• Steven Falk, President of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, was profiled in this weekend's Examiner.
• Gov. Schwarzenegger is open to a democrat as a successor.
• Not once in modern political history has a self-financed candidate captured a top-of-ticket party nomination and gone on to be elected governor or U.S. senator in the state.  Read the story here.
  
• U.S. lawmakers introduced legislation that would establish a new independent agency to spearhead government clean energy investments.  Click here for the story.