[img_assist|nid=2023|title=San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom|desc=Getty Images Photo|link=none|align=none|width=420|height=280]DENVER - San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom used an opportunity Thursday to address the California Democratic Party delegation, leaving little doubt that the young mayor is inching closer and closer to announcing a run for governor in 2010.

While admitting the Golden State is suffering from many different social and economic -- ailments including the lack of a state budget and a massive $15 billion deficit -- Newsom spent a lot time talking about what's going right in California, too.

Newsom said California is the birthplace to the world's high-technology industries and is the place that some of the most advanced and well respected research and academic institutions around the globe call home.

And, he said, the Golden State embraces diversity like nowhere else.

"There's nothing more significant or important than the fact that we are the most diverse state in the most diverse nation on earth. We don't tolerate our diversity, we celebrate it," Newsom said.

Newsom also said that many of the same programs that he has been able to make work in San Francisco could also work successfully on a statewide basis. He cited the city's new low income healthcare plan as an example.

In the audience for the brief speech on Thursday was Garry South, new senior adviser to Newsom's newly formed gubernatorial exploratory committee.