Kamala Devi Harris (/ˈkɑːmələ/ KAH-mə-lə;[1] born October 20, 1964) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the junior United States Senator from California since 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, she previously served as the 27th District Attorney of San Francisco from 2004 to 2011 and 32nd Attorney General of California from 2011 until 2017. She ran as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in the 2020 election, before dropping out on December 3, 2019.[2]
Harris was born in Oakland, California, and is a graduate of Howard University and University of California, Hastings College of the Law. In the 1990s, she worked in the San Francisco District Attorney's Office and the City Attorney of San Francisco's office. In 2004, she was elected District Attorney of San Francisco.
Harris won the election as California's Attorney General in 2010 and was reelected in 2014 by a wide margin. On November 8, 2016, she defeated Loretta Sanchez in the 2016 Senate election to succeed outgoing Senator Barbara Boxer, becoming California's third female U.S. Senator, and the first of either Jamaican or Indian ancestry.[3] Since becoming a Senator, she has supported single-payer healthcare, federal descheduling of cannabis, support for sanctuary cities, the DREAM Act, a ban on assault rifles, and lowering the tax burden for the working and middle classes while raising taxes on corporations and the wealthiest one percent of Americans.
Kamala Devi Harris was born on October 20, 1964 in Oakland, California. Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was a Tamil Indian breast-cancer scientist who immigrated to the United States from Madras, India, in 1960 to pursue a doctorate in endocrinology at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley).[4][5] Her father, Donald Harris, is a Stanford University economics professor who emigrated from Jamaica in 1961 for graduate study in economics at UC Berkeley.[6][7] Harris has one younger sister, Maya Harris.[8][9] Her mother insisted on giving them both Sanskrit names derived from Hindu mythology to help preserve their cultural identity.[10] She is also a descendant of a slave owner from Jamaica.[11]
She identifies as black[12] and Indian, but sees her experience primarily as American.[13] Harris was raised in Berkeley, California.[14] She grew up attending both a Black Baptist church, where she and her sister sang in the choir, and a Hindu temple.[15][16]
Her mother was an upper class Brahmin[17] from the Besant Nagar neighborhood of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, whose "Gopalan" bloodline can be traced over 1,000 years.[18] Shyamala was described as a "feminist concerned that the women who did her laundry were the victims of domestic violence."[17] As a child, Harris often visited her extended family in Chennai. She was also close to her diplomat grandfather, P. V. Gopalan.[5][19]
Harris began kindergarten during the second year of Berkeley's school desegregation busing program, which adopted the extensive use of busing to attempt to bring racial balance to each of the city's public schools; a bus drove her to a school which, two years prior, had been 95% white.[20][21]
Harris' parents divorced when she was seven, and her mother was granted custody of Harris and her sister.[14][11] After the divorce, when she and her sister would visit their father in Palo Alto on the weekends, she stated that neighbors' kids were not allowed to play with them because they were black.[15]
When Harris was 12, she and her sister moved with their mother to Montreal, Quebec, Canada, where she had accepted a position doing research at Jewish General Hospital and teaching at McGill University.[22][23][24] She was a popular student at Westmount High School in Westmount, Quebec.[25] As a teenager, Harris co-founded a small dance troupe of six dancers that played at community centres and fundraisers.[26]
Harris graduated from high school in 1981.[27][28] She went on to Howard University in Washington, D.C. where she double-majored in political science and economics, was elected to the liberal-arts student council, was on the debate team, organized mentor programs for local youth, demonstrated against apartheid, and joined Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.[29][30][29][17]
Harris returned to California, where in 1989 she earned her Juris Doctor (J.D.) from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco.[7][31] She was admitted to the State Bar of California in 1990. Believing the world needed "more socially aware prosecutors,"[17] Harris decided to seek a career in law enforcement because she wanted to be "at the table where decisions are made".[7][32]
Early career
In 1990, Harris was hired as a deputy district attorney in Alameda County, California where she was noted as being "an able prosecutor on the way up."[33] She specialized in child sexual abuse trials, which she observed were a difficult type of prosecution, given juries are more inclined to accept the word of an adult over the word of a child.[17]
"Harris has a good courtroom presence, a high success rate. She is a genuinely good person and her social values will work well in San Francisco."[17] –– Tom Orloff, Alameda District Attorney
During this time, Harris also taught advocacy skills at Stanford and University of San Francisco.[34]
Harris dated then-California Assembly Speaker Willie Brown from 1994 to 1995.[35][36][37] Brown began introducing Harris to his political network, resulting in Harris being increasingly featured in local newspapers and society columns. According to Jack Davis, the manager of Brown's campaign for mayor of San Francisco, "'Brown [was] the darling of the well-to-do set... And she was the girlfriend, and so she met, you know, everybody who’s anybody, as a result of being his girl.'"[37]
In 1994, Harris took leave of her position in Alameda County when Brown appointed her to the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board.[38][34][37] The position paid $100,000 per year.[35] Harris served on the board for six months. Then, during a lame-duck session, Brown appointed her to a three-year term on the California Medical Assistance Commission, overseeing Medi-Cal service contracts.[39][40] The Commission reportedly met about once per month and paid commission members over $70,000 per year.[38][39][34][17] Regarding these patronage positions, Harris has said:
"These jobs were created before I was born. Whether you agree or disagree with the system, I did the work. I worked hard to keep St. Luke's Hospital open. I brought a level of life knowledge and common sense to the jobs. I mean, if you were asked to be on a board that regulated medical care, would you say no?”[17]
Harris ended her relationship with Brown shortly after his mayoral inauguration.[17] In 2003, she expressed frustration at being linked to Brown in the media; referring to him as an "albatross hanging around my neck," she said, "I have no doubt that I am independent of him [Brown] –– and that he would probably right now express some fright about the fact that he cannot control me. His career is over; I will be alive and kicking for the next 40 years. I do not owe him a thing".[17] In 2015 she referred to Brown as "a mentor and friend."[15]
San Francisco ADA
In February 1998, San Francisco District Attorney, Terence Hallinan, appointed Harris as an Assistant District Attorney.[41] She became the chief of the Career Criminal Division, supervising five other attorneys,[17] where she prosecuted homicide, burglary, robbery and sexual assault cases –– particularly Three-Strikes cases.[17] Harris was noted as having been "an excellent mentor" in the office, and had been active in Hallinan's 1999 re-election campaign through his December election. However, eight months later, Harris quit.[33][42]
Office turmoil
Harris reportedly clashed with Hallinan's new chief assistant, Darrell Salomon –– a former personal attorney to Senator Dianne Feinstein with connections to City Hall, but no criminal prosecuting experience.[33][43] Salomon was appointed in January after the previous chief, Richard Iglehart, was appointed to become a Superior Court Judge.[44]
Salomon's appointment coincided with the introduction of a state ballot measure –– Prop 21 –– which would be voted on in an election held in three months.[42] The proposition would grant prosecutors the option of trying juvenile defendants in Superior Court rather than juvenile courts. This authority was usually only granted to judges and could have had a big impact in San Francisco where drug violations accounted for nearly 70% of prosecuted crimes.[42]
Harris opposed the measure, as did Hallinan, who was the only District Attorney in the state to oppose the measure.[42] However, Harris, concerned about the possibility of nearly 40,000 kids per year –– mostly minority –– being tried in adult court, became very involved in campaigning against the measure, including attending rallies as a speaker, writing position papers and volunteering for the "No-On-21" campaign on weekends.[42] Her knowledge and commitment to the issue was such that the District Attorney's Public Information Officer at the time, Fred Gardner, would give reporters the option to interview both Harris and Hallinan. However, doing so reportedly made Hallinan suspicious that Harris was trying to usurp him in preparation of challenging him for the next election (in 2003).[42] Salomon approached Gardner and allegedly accused him of helping Harris:
"You're trying to make a star out of Kamala Harris."[42]
Gardener dismissed the accusation, noting that "she [Harris] is already a star," and was then reportedly told by Salomon to stop directing Prop 21 media inquiries to Harris as he believed Harris had "an agenda" given she was "Willie Brown's protege."[42]
Gardener confronted Harris and inquired if she was planning to run in 2003. She reportedly replied that it would be "unprofessional" to run against Hallinan if he decided to run for a third term.[42] Gardener relayed Harris' response to Hallinan. However, Gardner stated that Hallinan "did not believe her."[42] Hallinan then ordered that all calls from reporters, not only those pertaining to Prop 21, go directly to him:
"I'm the elected official. I'm the D.A. It's my office. Except for my spokesman, I don't want anybody going to the media."[42]
Hallinan then reassigned Harris, which Harris believed to be a de facto demotion, and set a canary trap to test her loyalty by divulging supposedly confidential information to her and watching to see if was leaked to the media.[42] It was, but the leaker turned out to be Hallinan himself, not Harris.[42]
Shortly after her reassignment, Harris was a part of a group of supervisors who confronted Hallinan about Salomon, seeking to "overthrow" him.[17] However, when their attempt failed, Harris then filed a complaint against Salomon and quit.[33][17]
The spokesman for the District Attorney's office called Harris' defection "a sad day [because Harris was] a good lawyer, well-liked and brilliant."[33]
Salomon resigned two weeks after Harris left.[43] He reportedly blamed Harris for "stirring up resentment towards him."[42]
City Attorney
In August 2000, Harris took a new job at San Francisco City Hall, working for elected City Attorney, Louise Renne.[33] Renne hired Harris to take the place of Katherine Feinstein, after Feinstein was appointed as a Superior Court Judge.[33][45][33] Harris ran the Family and Children's Services Division representing child abuse and neglect cases, domestic violence, building code enforcement, and public health matters.[17][33] Renne said of Harris:
"She will make the best DA this city has seen in years."[17]
2003 Campaign for District Attorney
Campaign organization
Harris was reportedly so angry about the discontent in Terence Hallinan's office that she decided to run against him.[17] She began "methodically gathering support" by attending political events, volunteering on other campaigns, assuming board memberships on nonprofits, being seen at exclusive parties, and presenting herself as an alternative to a "political has-been."[17]
In mid-2002, Harris called Mark Buell, the stepfather of her friend, Summer Tompkins Walker, and told him of her intention to run for District Attorney against the two-term incumbent –– and her former boss.[37] Buell was married to major Democratic megadonor, Susie Tompkins Buell. He was doubtful of Harris' candidacy as he had only thought of her as "a socialite with a law degree" However, Buell, impressed by Harris, offered to be her finance chair.[37]
Buell advised that to beat an incumbent, Harris would need to raise more than $150,000, the highest amount ever raised to campaign for the position. He and Harris organized a finance committee composed mostly of Harris' friends, who were "young socialite ladies".[37] The committee included Vanessa Getty and Susan Swig. While Harris, saying that the black community was "her base",[17] set up her campaign office in Bayview –– the "most isolated neighborhood" in San Francisco[37] –– the committee arranged for her to "routinely" raise money in the exclusive neighborhood of Pacific Heights, with 25% of her donations coming from Pacific Heights alone:
"The crowd seems fascinated by Harris, an intelligent woman of color who speaks their language, who knows their first names, and who understands that as liberals, they want to maintain law and order –– but with a certain San Franciscostyle noblesse oblige."[17]
Harris was also seeking to run a campaign that disrupted negative stereotypes of black women:[17]
“...Black female candidates have to fight the perception that black women are not competent. When whites look at black women they see [them] as servants, maids or cooks...Being able to cross over into the white community is essential for any black, female or male, to succeed as a political figure. [They should] lay the groundwork by looking to become active on the boards of social, cultural and, charitable institutions like symphonies, museums, and hospitals. It’s the way to get respect from a world that otherwise is content to eschew or label you."[46] –– Willie Brown
When Harris announced her candidacy, she had served on the board of trustees of the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco, had been a member of San Francisco Jazz Organization, was a patron dinner chair for the San Francisco Symphony's Black & White Ball, was the executive director of the San Francisco Domestic Violence Consortium, led the board of directors of Partners Ending Domestic Abuse, and was a board member of nonprofit, Women Count. Harris was also documented attending exclusive events, dressing in luxury clothing such as Burberry, and dining with the heirs of billionaires:[37]
"...people wanted to be able to say they’d met her and were supporting her because of this quasi-social network that we started with, and the more she raised, and the more she got traction, the more everybody else wanted to say they heard her, they talked to her and were supportive...but they were kind of professional socialites, and they wanted to help her. They saw it as a two-way street."[37] –– Sharon Owsley, Socialite and Attorney
In 2003, Harris entered the election, running against two-term incumbent and former boss, Terence Hallinan, and defense attorney, Bill Fazio.[47][48] Harris was the least known candidate among the three, but noted to be "whip-smart, hard-working, and well-credentialed."[48][17]
Hallinan and Fazio sought to link Harris to Willie Brown, who was openly campaigning and fundraising for Harris, through a PAC –– California Voter Project –– though reportedly without her consent.[17] Harris denied financially benefitting from Brown. However, Mark Buell later admitted that he met with Brown for lunch and Brown volunteered a campaign tactic to him.[17] Buell also admitted that Brown personally donated $500 –– the individual donation maximum –– to Harris after Summer Tompkins Walker reportedly asked Brown to donate while at a restaurant.[17]
"How can Harris root out corruption if she has Willie supporting her behind the scenes? I do not care that they had a relationship, but there are legitimate questions whether or not there is payback there."[17] –– Bill Fazio
However, Harris supporters said that statements used to tie her to Willie Brown were misogynistic. Harris' sister, Maya, asked: “When a woman dates an accomplished man, why are people so willing to assume it's only because of him that the woman is successful?" [17] Harris' mother stated:
"What has Willie Brown done for her? Introduce her to society people when they dated? If they did not like Kamala on her own right, they would have dropped her after she dropped Willie. Kamala is comfortable in all kinds of social scenes. She can pull it off in high society, too. She has the manners, the eating habits."[17]
Harris' campaign later successfully lobbied the 24-member Central Committee –– including U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein and then-House Majority leader Nancy Pelosi –– of the statewide Democratic party to deny their influential endorsement to either of Harris' competitors.[17] It was the first time the Central Committee had withheld its endorsement from an incumbent.
Campaign spending violation
Harris was found to be guilty, by the city's Ethics Commission, of violating campaign spending limit of $211,000, of which Harris had agreed to abide by before the campaign commenced.[48] Harris had overspent the pledged amount by nearly $100,000. The Commission's own staff was later accused of abusing its discretion, and favoring Harris, when it retroactively lifted the campaign spending limit after Harris' campaign had spent over the limit, and when Harris' campaign said that it was recognizing the Commission as the authority of the limit's forms rather than the Department of Elections.[48] The Commission denied the accusations, saying that its staff acted with its authority under local law.[48]
Harris' supporters said her campaign mistakenly violated the spending cap due to a "misinterpretation of confusing law changes" on the forms.[48] They also argued that the cap put lesser-known candidates at a disadvantage, which was unfair since Harris had to spend more to increase her profile. However, critics charged that the forms were straightforward for any attorney to understand. Critics were also adamant that Harris willfully violated the spending cap and argued that, even if Harris mistakenly overspent the cap, that doing so was indefensible under the law.[48]
Harris ran a "Notice to Voters" in newspapers stating that she never agreed to limit her campaign spending, but said her failure to file the form (to decline the campaign spending cap) on time on was "due to errors by her campaign."[49] Harris' campaign lawyer also argued that the spending cap violated the First Amendment. Harris' campaign was questioned on why she would agree to the spending limit if it was, in fact, unconstitutional. Harris' campaign responded that political candidates face political pressure "to accept rules that hinder their constitutional rights."[48]
Harris was fined nearly $35,000 by the Commission and ordered to alert voters, in her mailers, that she had violated the spending limit. The mailers, subsequently produced by her campaign, were said to have displayed her spending violation with "the smallest font in America."[48]
Harris, who the San Francisco Examiner called "a relative unknown", went on to spend nearly $625,000 throughout the campaign while Hallinan spent just over $285,000.[50] It was more than four times more than any candidate had raised in the history of running for the office.[37]
Runoff election
Harris garnered negative press from the campaign spending violation, but was said to have run a "forceful" campaign, assisted with the political and personal backing of former boyfriend, mayor Willie Brown, and connections to the city's high society.[50][37] Harris secured "an impressive array" of endorsements, including from Senator Dianne Feinstein, Sheriff Michael Hennessey, writer and cartoonist Aaron McGruder (who Harris noted was a close friend), and comedians Eddie Griffin and Chris Rock.[50][51][52]
Bill Fazio had been eliminated from the election after initial voting. Hallinan and Harris, who garnered 37% and 33% of the vote, respectively, would have a runoff.[53]
In the runoff, Harris sought to differentiate her policy positions from those of Hallinan, as it was a "problem" that they ideologically agreed on key issues such as being against the use of the death penalty.[17] Harris ran on making the sexual abuse of children her top issue.[54] She charged that, though she worked for Hallinan for two years, she left his office because it was "dysfunctional," technologically inept and was "a mess." She attacked Hallinan for promoting people in his office without merit, for his "abysmal" conviction rate for serious crimes (at just under 65%) –– over 10 percent lower than his predecessor's rate –– lowering office morale, and for his willingness to accept plea bargains in cases of domestic violence:[50][54][17]
"It is not progressive to be soft on crime."[17] –– Kamala Harris, 2003
Hallinan refuted that Harris was misrepresenting his office. For example, he stated the decrease in conviction rate was not due to the performance of his office, but because of a diversion program that he created for criminals.[17]
Harris was lauded for her campaigning skills, particularly for "listen[ing] carefully to the concerns of ordinary people."[17] She was rumored to have worked 16 hours per day on her campaign, but was charged by critics as being a "machine" candidate more concerned with conviction rates than the people who were actually convicted:[54][17]
"It's not the tradition in San Francisco to favor punishment over rehabilitation. We are not concerned with the conviction rate, we don't want to come down hard on people accused of crimes, we don't want to nail them to the cross.”[17] –– Jeff Adachi, Public Defender, 2003
Harris also accrued negative publicity. Being upper middle class she was portrayed as being out of touch with her self-described "black base."[17] She reportedly told a group of affluent blacks at Yerba Buena Gardens, along with affluent whites in Pacific Heights, "The most victimized people do not vote, so you have to act on their behalf.”[17] Also, while talking to three black men, outside of a Sunnydale housing project, who planned to protest the Muni transit system for not honoring its promise to hire young blacks to work on a new light-rail system, Harris suggested they "ask a police captain to conduct a protest training [so] you can protest safely." The organizer of the protest, Harold Kyer, was reportedly embarrassed to have to explain to Harris that her suggestion was naive:
"Our community is not police-friendly, Ms. Harris. They will not come to a meeting if the police show up."[17]
Harris faced additional criticism. Her support of Proposition M, which would increase criminal penalties for panhandling without providing funds for housing or health services for the homeless, conflicted with her liberal platform. However, the stance aligned her with Mayoral candidate, Gavin Newsom, whose campaign was supporting the initiative. Harris was also criticized, near the end of the campaign, for holding a press conference in which she vocalized a case about a woman who was tortured by her boyfriend with a hot iron, in order to attack Hallinan's record on domestic violence.[55] Harris did not talk to, or consult with, the victim prior to citing the case. However, Hallinan did speak with the victim and her family. The victim subsequently praised Hallinan for "respect[ing] her desire not to have the case become a media spectacle." Harris was accused of politicizing the victim.[55]
Harris won with 56.33% of the vote and became the first woman to lead the District Attorney's Office of San Francisco.[50]
District Attorney of San Francisco
Harris was born in Oakland, California, and is a graduate of Howard University and University of California, Hastings College of the Law. In the 1990s, she worked in the San Francisco District Attorney's Office and the City Attorney of San Francisco's office. In 2004, she was elected District Attorney of San Francisco.
Harris won the election as California's Attorney General in 2010 and was reelected in 2014 by a wide margin. On November 8, 2016, she defeated Loretta Sanchez in the 2016 Senate election to succeed outgoing Senator Barbara Boxer, becoming California's third female U.S. Senator, and the first of either Jamaican or Indian ancestry.[3] Since becoming a Senator, she has supported single-payer healthcare, federal descheduling of cannabis, support for sanctuary cities, the DREAM Act, a ban on assault rifles, and lowering the tax burden for the working and middle classes while raising taxes on corporations and the wealthiest one percent of Americans.
Kamala Devi Harris was born on October 20, 1964 in Oakland, California. Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was a Tamil Indian breast-cancer scientist who immigrated to the United States from Madras, India, in 1960 to pursue a doctorate in endocrinology at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley).[4][5] Her father, Donald Harris, is a Stanford University economics professor who emigrated from Jamaica in 1961 for graduate study in economics at UC Berkeley.[6][7] Harris has one younger sister, Maya Harris.[8][9] Her mother insisted on giving them both Sanskrit names derived from Hindu mythology to help preserve their cultural identity.[10] She is also a descendant of a slave owner from Jamaica.[11]
She identifies as black[12] and Indian, but sees her experience primarily as American.[13] Harris was raised in Berkeley, California.[14] She grew up attending both a Black Baptist church, where she and her sister sang in the choir, and a Hindu temple.[15][16]
Her mother was an upper class Brahmin[17] from the Besant Nagar neighborhood of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, whose "Gopalan" bloodline can be traced over 1,000 years.[18] Shyamala was described as a "feminist concerned that the women who did her laundry were the victims of domestic violence."[17] As a child, Harris often visited her extended family in Chennai. She was also close to her diplomat grandfather, P. V. Gopalan.[5][19]
Harris began kindergarten during the second year of Berkeley's school desegregation busing program, which adopted the extensive use of busing to attempt to bring racial balance to each of the city's public schools; a bus drove her to a school which, two years prior, had been 95% white.[20][21]
Harris' parents divorced when she was seven, and her mother was granted custody of Harris and her sister.[14][11] After the divorce, when she and her sister would visit their father in Palo Alto on the weekends, she stated that neighbors' kids were not allowed to play with them because they were black.[15]
When Harris was 12, she and her sister moved with their mother to Montreal, Quebec, Canada, where she had accepted a position doing research at Jewish General Hospital and teaching at McGill University.[22][23][24] She was a popular student at Westmount High School in Westmount, Quebec.[25] As a teenager, Harris co-founded a small dance troupe of six dancers that played at community centres and fundraisers.[26]
Harris graduated from high school in 1981.[27][28] She went on to Howard University in Washington, D.C. where she double-majored in political science and economics, was elected to the liberal-arts student council, was on the debate team, organized mentor programs for local youth, demonstrated against apartheid, and joined Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.[29][30][29][17]
Harris returned to California, where in 1989 she earned her Juris Doctor (J.D.) from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco.[7][31] She was admitted to the State Bar of California in 1990. Believing the world needed "more socially aware prosecutors,"[17] Harris decided to seek a career in law enforcement because she wanted to be "at the table where decisions are made".[7][32]
Early career
In 1990, Harris was hired as a deputy district attorney in Alameda County, California where she was noted as being "an able prosecutor on the way up."[33] She specialized in child sexual abuse trials, which she observed were a difficult type of prosecution, given juries are more inclined to accept the word of an adult over the word of a child.[17]
"Harris has a good courtroom presence, a high success rate. She is a genuinely good person and her social values will work well in San Francisco."[17] –– Tom Orloff, Alameda District Attorney
During this time, Harris also taught advocacy skills at Stanford and University of San Francisco.[34]
Harris dated then-California Assembly Speaker Willie Brown from 1994 to 1995.[35][36][37] Brown began introducing Harris to his political network, resulting in Harris being increasingly featured in local newspapers and society columns. According to Jack Davis, the manager of Brown's campaign for mayor of San Francisco, "'Brown [was] the darling of the well-to-do set... And she was the girlfriend, and so she met, you know, everybody who’s anybody, as a result of being his girl.'"[37]
In 1994, Harris took leave of her position in Alameda County when Brown appointed her to the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board.[38][34][37] The position paid $100,000 per year.[35] Harris served on the board for six months. Then, during a lame-duck session, Brown appointed her to a three-year term on the California Medical Assistance Commission, overseeing Medi-Cal service contracts.[39][40] The Commission reportedly met about once per month and paid commission members over $70,000 per year.[38][39][34][17] Regarding these patronage positions, Harris has said:
"These jobs were created before I was born. Whether you agree or disagree with the system, I did the work. I worked hard to keep St. Luke's Hospital open. I brought a level of life knowledge and common sense to the jobs. I mean, if you were asked to be on a board that regulated medical care, would you say no?”[17]
Harris ended her relationship with Brown shortly after his mayoral inauguration.[17] In 2003, she expressed frustration at being linked to Brown in the media; referring to him as an "albatross hanging around my neck," she said, "I have no doubt that I am independent of him [Brown] –– and that he would probably right now express some fright about the fact that he cannot control me. His career is over; I will be alive and kicking for the next 40 years. I do not owe him a thing".[17] In 2015 she referred to Brown as "a mentor and friend."[15]
San Francisco ADA
In February 1998, San Francisco District Attorney, Terence Hallinan, appointed Harris as an Assistant District Attorney.[41] She became the chief of the Career Criminal Division, supervising five other attorneys,[17] where she prosecuted homicide, burglary, robbery and sexual assault cases –– particularly Three-Strikes cases.[17] Harris was noted as having been "an excellent mentor" in the office, and had been active in Hallinan's 1999 re-election campaign through his December election. However, eight months later, Harris quit.[33][42]
Office turmoil
Harris reportedly clashed with Hallinan's new chief assistant, Darrell Salomon –– a former personal attorney to Senator Dianne Feinstein with connections to City Hall, but no criminal prosecuting experience.[33][43] Salomon was appointed in January after the previous chief, Richard Iglehart, was appointed to become a Superior Court Judge.[44]
Salomon's appointment coincided with the introduction of a state ballot measure –– Prop 21 –– which would be voted on in an election held in three months.[42] The proposition would grant prosecutors the option of trying juvenile defendants in Superior Court rather than juvenile courts. This authority was usually only granted to judges and could have had a big impact in San Francisco where drug violations accounted for nearly 70% of prosecuted crimes.[42]
Harris opposed the measure, as did Hallinan, who was the only District Attorney in the state to oppose the measure.[42] However, Harris, concerned about the possibility of nearly 40,000 kids per year –– mostly minority –– being tried in adult court, became very involved in campaigning against the measure, including attending rallies as a speaker, writing position papers and volunteering for the "No-On-21" campaign on weekends.[42] Her knowledge and commitment to the issue was such that the District Attorney's Public Information Officer at the time, Fred Gardner, would give reporters the option to interview both Harris and Hallinan. However, doing so reportedly made Hallinan suspicious that Harris was trying to usurp him in preparation of challenging him for the next election (in 2003).[42] Salomon approached Gardner and allegedly accused him of helping Harris:
"You're trying to make a star out of Kamala Harris."[42]
Gardener dismissed the accusation, noting that "she [Harris] is already a star," and was then reportedly told by Salomon to stop directing Prop 21 media inquiries to Harris as he believed Harris had "an agenda" given she was "Willie Brown's protege."[42]
Gardener confronted Harris and inquired if she was planning to run in 2003. She reportedly replied that it would be "unprofessional" to run against Hallinan if he decided to run for a third term.[42] Gardener relayed Harris' response to Hallinan. However, Gardner stated that Hallinan "did not believe her."[42] Hallinan then ordered that all calls from reporters, not only those pertaining to Prop 21, go directly to him:
"I'm the elected official. I'm the D.A. It's my office. Except for my spokesman, I don't want anybody going to the media."[42]
Hallinan then reassigned Harris, which Harris believed to be a de facto demotion, and set a canary trap to test her loyalty by divulging supposedly confidential information to her and watching to see if was leaked to the media.[42] It was, but the leaker turned out to be Hallinan himself, not Harris.[42]
Shortly after her reassignment, Harris was a part of a group of supervisors who confronted Hallinan about Salomon, seeking to "overthrow" him.[17] However, when their attempt failed, Harris then filed a complaint against Salomon and quit.[33][17]
The spokesman for the District Attorney's office called Harris' defection "a sad day [because Harris was] a good lawyer, well-liked and brilliant."[33]
Salomon resigned two weeks after Harris left.[43] He reportedly blamed Harris for "stirring up resentment towards him."[42]
City Attorney
In August 2000, Harris took a new job at San Francisco City Hall, working for elected City Attorney, Louise Renne.[33] Renne hired Harris to take the place of Katherine Feinstein, after Feinstein was appointed as a Superior Court Judge.[33][45][33] Harris ran the Family and Children's Services Division representing child abuse and neglect cases, domestic violence, building code enforcement, and public health matters.[17][33] Renne said of Harris:
"She will make the best DA this city has seen in years."[17]
2003 Campaign for District Attorney
Campaign organization
Harris was reportedly so angry about the discontent in Terence Hallinan's office that she decided to run against him.[17] She began "methodically gathering support" by attending political events, volunteering on other campaigns, assuming board memberships on nonprofits, being seen at exclusive parties, and presenting herself as an alternative to a "political has-been."[17]
In mid-2002, Harris called Mark Buell, the stepfather of her friend, Summer Tompkins Walker, and told him of her intention to run for District Attorney against the two-term incumbent –– and her former boss.[37] Buell was married to major Democratic megadonor, Susie Tompkins Buell. He was doubtful of Harris' candidacy as he had only thought of her as "a socialite with a law degree" However, Buell, impressed by Harris, offered to be her finance chair.[37]
Buell advised that to beat an incumbent, Harris would need to raise more than $150,000, the highest amount ever raised to campaign for the position. He and Harris organized a finance committee composed mostly of Harris' friends, who were "young socialite ladies".[37] The committee included Vanessa Getty and Susan Swig. While Harris, saying that the black community was "her base",[17] set up her campaign office in Bayview –– the "most isolated neighborhood" in San Francisco[37] –– the committee arranged for her to "routinely" raise money in the exclusive neighborhood of Pacific Heights, with 25% of her donations coming from Pacific Heights alone:
"The crowd seems fascinated by Harris, an intelligent woman of color who speaks their language, who knows their first names, and who understands that as liberals, they want to maintain law and order –– but with a certain San Franciscostyle noblesse oblige."[17]
Harris was also seeking to run a campaign that disrupted negative stereotypes of black women:[17]
“...Black female candidates have to fight the perception that black women are not competent. When whites look at black women they see [them] as servants, maids or cooks...Being able to cross over into the white community is essential for any black, female or male, to succeed as a political figure. [They should] lay the groundwork by looking to become active on the boards of social, cultural and, charitable institutions like symphonies, museums, and hospitals. It’s the way to get respect from a world that otherwise is content to eschew or label you."[46] –– Willie Brown
When Harris announced her candidacy, she had served on the board of trustees of the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco, had been a member of San Francisco Jazz Organization, was a patron dinner chair for the San Francisco Symphony's Black & White Ball, was the executive director of the San Francisco Domestic Violence Consortium, led the board of directors of Partners Ending Domestic Abuse, and was a board member of nonprofit, Women Count. Harris was also documented attending exclusive events, dressing in luxury clothing such as Burberry, and dining with the heirs of billionaires:[37]
"...people wanted to be able to say they’d met her and were supporting her because of this quasi-social network that we started with, and the more she raised, and the more she got traction, the more everybody else wanted to say they heard her, they talked to her and were supportive...but they were kind of professional socialites, and they wanted to help her. They saw it as a two-way street."[37] –– Sharon Owsley, Socialite and Attorney
In 2003, Harris entered the election, running against two-term incumbent and former boss, Terence Hallinan, and defense attorney, Bill Fazio.[47][48] Harris was the least known candidate among the three, but noted to be "whip-smart, hard-working, and well-credentialed."[48][17]
Hallinan and Fazio sought to link Harris to Willie Brown, who was openly campaigning and fundraising for Harris, through a PAC –– California Voter Project –– though reportedly without her consent.[17] Harris denied financially benefitting from Brown. However, Mark Buell later admitted that he met with Brown for lunch and Brown volunteered a campaign tactic to him.[17] Buell also admitted that Brown personally donated $500 –– the individual donation maximum –– to Harris after Summer Tompkins Walker reportedly asked Brown to donate while at a restaurant.[17]
"How can Harris root out corruption if she has Willie supporting her behind the scenes? I do not care that they had a relationship, but there are legitimate questions whether or not there is payback there."[17] –– Bill Fazio
However, Harris supporters said that statements used to tie her to Willie Brown were misogynistic. Harris' sister, Maya, asked: “When a woman dates an accomplished man, why are people so willing to assume it's only because of him that the woman is successful?" [17] Harris' mother stated:
"What has Willie Brown done for her? Introduce her to society people when they dated? If they did not like Kamala on her own right, they would have dropped her after she dropped Willie. Kamala is comfortable in all kinds of social scenes. She can pull it off in high society, too. She has the manners, the eating habits."[17]
Harris' campaign later successfully lobbied the 24-member Central Committee –– including U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein and then-House Majority leader Nancy Pelosi –– of the statewide Democratic party to deny their influential endorsement to either of Harris' competitors.[17] It was the first time the Central Committee had withheld its endorsement from an incumbent.
Campaign spending violation
Harris was found to be guilty, by the city's Ethics Commission, of violating campaign spending limit of $211,000, of which Harris had agreed to abide by before the campaign commenced.[48] Harris had overspent the pledged amount by nearly $100,000. The Commission's own staff was later accused of abusing its discretion, and favoring Harris, when it retroactively lifted the campaign spending limit after Harris' campaign had spent over the limit, and when Harris' campaign said that it was recognizing the Commission as the authority of the limit's forms rather than the Department of Elections.[48] The Commission denied the accusations, saying that its staff acted with its authority under local law.[48]
Harris' supporters said her campaign mistakenly violated the spending cap due to a "misinterpretation of confusing law changes" on the forms.[48] They also argued that the cap put lesser-known candidates at a disadvantage, which was unfair since Harris had to spend more to increase her profile. However, critics charged that the forms were straightforward for any attorney to understand. Critics were also adamant that Harris willfully violated the spending cap and argued that, even if Harris mistakenly overspent the cap, that doing so was indefensible under the law.[48]
Harris ran a "Notice to Voters" in newspapers stating that she never agreed to limit her campaign spending, but said her failure to file the form (to decline the campaign spending cap) on time on was "due to errors by her campaign."[49] Harris' campaign lawyer also argued that the spending cap violated the First Amendment. Harris' campaign was questioned on why she would agree to the spending limit if it was, in fact, unconstitutional. Harris' campaign responded that political candidates face political pressure "to accept rules that hinder their constitutional rights."[48]
Harris was fined nearly $35,000 by the Commission and ordered to alert voters, in her mailers, that she had violated the spending limit. The mailers, subsequently produced by her campaign, were said to have displayed her spending violation with "the smallest font in America."[48]
Harris, who the San Francisco Examiner called "a relative unknown", went on to spend nearly $625,000 throughout the campaign while Hallinan spent just over $285,000.[50] It was more than four times more than any candidate had raised in the history of running for the office.[37]
Runoff election
Harris garnered negative press from the campaign spending violation, but was said to have run a "forceful" campaign, assisted with the political and personal backing of former boyfriend, mayor Willie Brown, and connections to the city's high society.[50][37] Harris secured "an impressive array" of endorsements, including from Senator Dianne Feinstein, Sheriff Michael Hennessey, writer and cartoonist Aaron McGruder (who Harris noted was a close friend), and comedians Eddie Griffin and Chris Rock.[50][51][52]
Bill Fazio had been eliminated from the election after initial voting. Hallinan and Harris, who garnered 37% and 33% of the vote, respectively, would have a runoff.[53]
In the runoff, Harris sought to differentiate her policy positions from those of Hallinan, as it was a "problem" that they ideologically agreed on key issues such as being against the use of the death penalty.[17] Harris ran on making the sexual abuse of children her top issue.[54] She charged that, though she worked for Hallinan for two years, she left his office because it was "dysfunctional," technologically inept and was "a mess." She attacked Hallinan for promoting people in his office without merit, for his "abysmal" conviction rate for serious crimes (at just under 65%) –– over 10 percent lower than his predecessor's rate –– lowering office morale, and for his willingness to accept plea bargains in cases of domestic violence:[50][54][17]
"It is not progressive to be soft on crime."[17] –– Kamala Harris, 2003
Hallinan refuted that Harris was misrepresenting his office. For example, he stated the decrease in conviction rate was not due to the performance of his office, but because of a diversion program that he created for criminals.[17]
Harris was lauded for her campaigning skills, particularly for "listen[ing] carefully to the concerns of ordinary people."[17] She was rumored to have worked 16 hours per day on her campaign, but was charged by critics as being a "machine" candidate more concerned with conviction rates than the people who were actually convicted:[54][17]
"It's not the tradition in San Francisco to favor punishment over rehabilitation. We are not concerned with the conviction rate, we don't want to come down hard on people accused of crimes, we don't want to nail them to the cross.”[17] –– Jeff Adachi, Public Defender, 2003
Harris also accrued negative publicity. Being upper middle class she was portrayed as being out of touch with her self-described "black base."[17] She reportedly told a group of affluent blacks at Yerba Buena Gardens, along with affluent whites in Pacific Heights, "The most victimized people do not vote, so you have to act on their behalf.”[17] Also, while talking to three black men, outside of a Sunnydale housing project, who planned to protest the Muni transit system for not honoring its promise to hire young blacks to work on a new light-rail system, Harris suggested they "ask a police captain to conduct a protest training [so] you can protest safely." The organizer of the protest, Harold Kyer, was reportedly embarrassed to have to explain to Harris that her suggestion was naive:
"Our community is not police-friendly, Ms. Harris. They will not come to a meeting if the police show up."[17]
Harris faced additional criticism. Her support of Proposition M, which would increase criminal penalties for panhandling without providing funds for housing or health services for the homeless, conflicted with her liberal platform. However, the stance aligned her with Mayoral candidate, Gavin Newsom, whose campaign was supporting the initiative. Harris was also criticized, near the end of the campaign, for holding a press conference in which she vocalized a case about a woman who was tortured by her boyfriend with a hot iron, in order to attack Hallinan's record on domestic violence.[55] Harris did not talk to, or consult with, the victim prior to citing the case. However, Hallinan did speak with the victim and her family. The victim subsequently praised Hallinan for "respect[ing] her desire not to have the case become a media spectacle." Harris was accused of politicizing the victim.[55]
Harris won with 56.33% of the vote and became the first woman to lead the District Attorney's Office of San Francisco.[50]
District Attorney of San Francisco
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