In a move that ups the ante over the state budget fight on how much to spend for social services, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom announced today that he’s leading the charge in a lawsuit to challenge a cut in the reimbursement rates paid to doctors that treat Medi-Cal patients.

Newsom confirmed the widely speculated action in remarks at the monthly luncheon of the Sacramento Press Club. “What just happened at the state is so alarming,” he said of the decision to further cut the payments to doctors who accept low-income patients. “We had no choice but to sue.” Newsom also later characterized the decision made by the Legislature and Governor Schwarzenegger to be “unconscionable.”

That was obviously the main news. But a decent sized crowd flocked to see the charismatic San Fran pol at today’s event, and it’s hard to deny that many wanted to hear how he answered The Question.

I call it that in homage to an episode of one of my favorite TV series, The West Wing. In that episode, as the staff prepares for President Jed Bartlet to run for a second term, there’s giddiness when a potential GOP contender flubs what the White House staff keeps calling “the question” from a reporter. In that case, the question was: “Why do you want to be president?”

In Newsom’s case, you probably know the question…

Are you running for governor in 2010?

“It’s wildly premature” to be making such plans, Newsom said. He then went on to say that if the people who are urging him to do so are convincing enough, “and if I can convince myself,” he said… well… then he said he’d think about it.

Vague, but fair enough at this point.