Election Day may have only been seven days ago, but here on the West Coast San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris has her eye on 2010.
San Francisco Dist. Atty. Kamala Harris, one of Barack Obama’s earliest California backers, announced today that she is running for California attorney general in 2010…She would replace Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown, the former Oakland mayor and California governor, who is expected to run for governor in 2010.[latimes]Harris’ announcement was tempered with one, arguably big, caveat: Should current Attorney General Jerry Brown not run for governor in 2010, she would not pursue that office.
Should Harris not run for Attorney General it is believed that she would readily accept a political appointment as perhaps a deputy attorney general with the U.S. Justice Department. Harris has been a near tireless supporter of President-elect Barack Obama and is believed to be a short list of people Obama is considering for appointments to the federal department.[politickerca]
Kamala Harris is mixed race, thus her current position gives her three firsts — she is the first female District Attorney to be elected in San Francisco; the first African American elected as District Attorney in California; and the first Indian American elected to the position in the United States. If she wins in 2010, she would be breaking even more glass ceilings.
She would be the state’s first female attorney general and the first, in decades, who started out as a courtroom prosecutor.[latimes]In December 2003, Harris was elected as the first woman District Attorney in San Francisco’s history, and as the first African American woman in California to hold the office. She was overwhelmingly reelected to a second term in November 2007.[politickerca]
Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, is a breast cancer researcher. Her sister, Maya Harris, is a vice president at the Ford Foundation. Her brother-in-law, D. Anthony West, an attorney at the San Francisco law firm of Morrison & Foerster, is among the Californians who could receive an appointment in the Obama administration.[latimes]
Kamala sent out a message to her supporters yesterday including the following…
“Now, I want to take that same energy, innovation and change to the state level. I’ve spent my entire professional life in the trenches as a courtroom prosecutor. And I can tell you from the frontlines, we need tough new ideas for strengthening our criminal justice system in California. As Attorney General, I will fight for all Californians – from distressed homeowners to families whose neighborhoods are under siege. In the coming months, I will detail new ideas on how we can fight street gangs, go after subprime lenders and others responsible for the financial crisis, and fundamentally reform our prison system.”[caprog]
Good luck, Kamala. This is definitely a race that we will be keeping our eye on.
Her boyfriend is the 75 year old Willie brown
1 · willie said
So?
well, if she marries willie she could have the ultimate desi last name.
I’m a little uncomfortable with covering Kamala Harris as a desi in power. She’s said that she identifies herself as black, not desi. I think your identity is what you choose to be and if she doesn’t particularly identify with the desi community, I’m not sure we should be pushing that label on her.
I don’t think we are pushing – Kamala Harris has been very involved with Indian American Leadership Initiative and has a lot of support in the desi community. I’m pretty sure there’s an element of self identification there otherwise she wouldn’t be so involved.
She and Willie are history, I think. There are other Browns in the sea, though.
Yeah, based on her website, she’s comfortable with her Indian heritage. While the African American identity is more prominently placed, there’s plenty on her mother’s background and its possible impact on Kamala in the various news pieces they reproduce. At any rate, I doubt she’ll look down her nose at possible supporters.
perhaps its in our self-interest to let blacks keep kamala and, while we’re at it, barack. becoming a neurosurgeon is enough pressure. who needs potus? let blacks suffer for a change. there’s a reason jesse jackson was crying. his son’s only a congressman. the pressure is already on.
plus i’m pretty sure they’re going to extract a pretty heavy price if we keep this up. i for one will never agree to trading aishwarya rai, or god forbid, sunny leone.
Color me embarrassed – I’ve been a fan of Kamala’s for years, and never realized she was a desi. Of course given how much more vocal the African-American community in the Bay Area is than the (enormous) desi community, I guess that makes sense.
http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/dec/10us.htm
check this link about Kamala Devis.
There were reports that she is inclined to the culture of her mother than that of her father. She said she has very good relations with Indians and India. She goes to India every couple of years.
“In fact, she and her sister Maya, also an attorney, know all Hindu mythology and traditions,” Dr Shyamala, who visited the campaign office frequently to help the volunteers, said.
“Kamala will be at ease at a temple or in a church in the same way. She was born during Dussehra. So I gave her the name thinking of Goddess Lakshmi.”
Harris was born in 1964 and her sister Maya two years later. Their parents separated when Kamala was five.
Though a physician, Shyamala never forced the children to choose medicine as a career. “It is their life. They have to live according to their dreams, not mine. So I gave the freedom to chose their careers,” she said.
“Kamala was always thinking of public service. She never wanted to make money working in big firms. She was very much attached to my late father who was a joint secretary in the Indian government. He instilled in her a thirst for service ” Dr Shyamala noted.
Dr Shyamala says none from her immediate family is in the US, though she came here to study in the 60s. “They did not want to come to the US. So we frequently went to India.”
Varun Nikore, founder, Indian American Leadership Initiative, once called Harris to a training session organized by IALI. “She was electrifying. Definitely she will go to higher levels,” Nikore said.
This article from 2003 in the SF Weekly describes her first campaign for DA, and sets to rest the questions mentioned in this thread: yes, she dated Willie Brown, for six months fifteen years ago; and yes, she very much is culturally desi as well as black: just read the quotes from her mother. Nuff respect to sister Kamala — she’s the real deal.
i dunno. how else to read this than as an anti-indian dogwhistle? i mean, in this day an age you can’t just come out and say, “i hate jalebis.” you gotta use code words. this sounds like something mike or carol would say. next thing we know she’s changing her name to marsha.
on the other hand, she is dating a brown. so, i’m torn.
LOL, Manju–too true! I sent this to my brother.
10 · siddhartha said
I appreciate the fact check, but i’m frustrated it came up at all. she dates who she wants to. She could date Michel Foucault for all I care. I’m more concerned that she worked as a prosecutor, but I’d rather have a better person than a worse person in that role, especially since she’s looking for another job like that so it doesn’t matter as much here.
Ms. Harris’s opponent is going to get my money (she joins Jindal on my “must defeat” list). Search on Tony Bologna, Edwin Ramos and make up your own minds. I am surprised she thinks she has a springboard, SF is in regressing. The rest of the state can do without her magic
Manju, you’re on a roll tonight 🙂
5 · Taz said
This just means she is reaching out to a community that is eager to claim her success and give her money. This is not a critique, I would completely understand her not advertising her Indian heritage because I am sure she wasn’t embraced by desis when she was growing up. I don’t support her because of her policies, but that’s a different matter
Wedges have been driven between two longstanding pillars of America, sexism and racism, throughout the divisive 2008 campaign. Kamala Harris can be a uniter – finally allowing these forces to come together once again in opposition!
When you say the name Kamala, most people will think of this guy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHKuZkeyEJE
I care very much! He’s been dead for 24 years! And while CA is very sexually laissez-faire, I’m pretty sure (ahem) “dating the dead” is still illegal. I mean, if the DA wont follow the laws who will?
p.s. Taz – love the pic!
This takeover of America by half-breeds seems to be a KKK hatched plot. After all, they seemed to console themselves that while Obama’s takeover of America is cause for concern (His Grant Park speech when played backwards goes “Reparations… Reparations… Reparations… Black Power!… Kill Whitey!” Don’t believe me, Larry Johnson has the tapes!), he is just a mulatto, so it is not end of days yet.
I appreciate that she works with the Indian American Leadership Initiative, but that’s a very superficial move that doesn’t say anything about how she truly identifies. She may do that just so she doesn’t push away Indian American donors.
This is a quote from a profile of her in More.
http://www.more.com/more-women/politics/kamala-harris/?page=4
“Unlike Obama, who has written of his biracial coming-of-age struggle, Harris appears to have suffered little self-doubt. “I grew up as an African-American woman with an experience that was very rich and nurturing,” she says. “It’s more difficult for other people to figure out than it is for me,” she adds, laughing. “This is my life.”
As a student at historically black Howard University in Washington, D.C., Harris spent weekends protesting apartheid and then got a taste of working inside the political system for former California Senator Alan Cranston and pollster Peter Hart. Back in San Francisco, she became president of the black law students association at Hastings College of Law and volunteered for Jesse Jackson’s 1988 campaign.”
I think it’s perfectly natural for most biracial kids to identify with one side more than the other and I don’t think it should stop desis from supporting her, but it should be with the awareness that she probably doesn’t identify as such.
Rediff always says that, making it seem like anyone with a drop of Indian blood is living and dying for India, which they aren’t.
Yep. She’ll fit right into this administration.
Kamala,
They are not distressed “homeowners” – they are distressed “mortgage-owners”. They own nothing but a piece of paper – the bank owns their home. Only folks who have paid down their mortgages can be called homeowners. You’re a lawyer – you know what words mean.
Neighbourhoods under siege and street gangs – you know what’s the root cause of all that. Broken families where the father is not present. You should know that. Very well. How will you fix it? Ha?
What subprime lenders will you go after? They’re all gone. Bankrupt. Of course, you could go after Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, but something tells me you won’t.
I did not know there’s something wrong with the prison system – criminal justice system? Maybe. Prison system? There are walls and bars. There are alarms. There are visiting hours. What will you change?
You’re a good politician, though. Especially an asset for this administration.
M. Nam
Moornam, I thought you were going to be apathetic and keep quiet for the next 4 (or hopefully 8) years. A promise is a promise! Be good!
I will be apathetic about Sauron, but not about the ogres of Mordor.
M. Nam
21 · Lea said
“Truly?” 🙂 Well, Obama had to prove that he was ‘black enough’ so I suppose it makes sense that Harris would have to prove that she’s desi enough even though it’s quite clear from my own life experiences, at least, that human beings don’t boil down subjectively to one category or another. Why can’t even those of us who are bicultural let such things be and let people float back and forth as they wish subjectively while not denying the objective circumstances of her life – the person who raised her is South Asian, no? 🙂
Of course, if she’s ever in a position to ask for my support in any way, I’m going to take a harder look…at her politics.
24 · MoorNam said
keep talking like this and mom will cut off the internet connectivity to your basement. and stop doing your laundry.
I don’t see the subprime mortgage holders as victims so I think this is populism at work. Many were in on it by lying about their income after requirements for verification were removed. The math around interest rates is a constant regardless of what language you speak. Sounds alot like a criminal defense for someone caught up in a sting operation “I never would have strayed from the path of the righteous had the officer not created the situation”.
Harris is playing vote bank politics by refusing to deport illegal immigrant minors guilty of gang crimes, criticizing raids and now the mortgage non-crime
No, the subprime borrowers are victims here. You know how the mortgage brokers got paid until the crisis?? They got paid on a condition that the person they sell the mortgage stays current for 120 days. The best way to do this was to sell them ARMs with teaser rates, so the unsuspecting people got lured into “buying” homes and mortgage originators got their commission.
The securitizers on wallstreet put these mortgages in a bundle and sold them to someone in Iceland (and other places). We know what happened next.
She gets my vote because I heard she once made saag paneer for the Zodiac killer. This combines my two main criteria for supporting a candidate: interests in Indian cuisine, and palling around with terrorists.
And why should lack of due diligence on the part of mortgage borrowers be ignored?
28 · RC said
Yes, I am very familiar with teaser rates as I was offered similar inducements by brokers and turned them down and stayed out of the market. As did many other people faced with the same offer. There was nothing confusing about how the ARM worked, that the teaser rates were just that and would change. People keep mixing the rocket science of the securitization side of things with the very pedestrian mechanics of the actual mortgage terms. They were willing participants and lost, but tell a loser that it’s not their fault and you have their vote for life
all would have been well if the underlying mortgages paid up, Like Louiecypher said, Adjustable Rate Mortgages have adjustable rates which is not that difficult to understand.
32 · umber desi said
Not if the risks were understated or not explained properly to disadvantaged communities. It’s the new redlining.
31 · louiecypher said
The people who are against an English mandate are as responsible for this fiasco as anyone on Wall Street. They want a client population so they can have a nice pay check. Who says non-profit activist work can’t generate a nice living? They remind me alot of Jesse Jackson, who suggested “nutting” a certain someone, who was seen crying in Grant Park because with every success the gravy becomes thinner
I can already hear Sarah Palin yellin’ out in 2012: Welfare queens in gold plated cadillacs gettin’ McMansions paid for by Uncle Sam!
35 · Rahul said
I voted for Obama in both the primary & General Election but if you want to call me a racist go right ahead. The fact of the matter is that in Cali groups claiming to speak for Hispanics have racialized the issue when there is no shortage of Anglos who also fell. The issues are language & financial literacy. If these are not addressed we are already on our way to catastrophe #3
What part of an ARM risk was understated? That the rate will actually adjust or it the frequency and circumstances in which the rates will adjust?
36 · louiecypher said
First, I wasn’t calling you a racist. Further, this election had many racists vote for Obama, and I also know non-racists who voted for McCain, so that’s neither here nor there 🙂
And while some people might be misrepresenting the issue – as in whatever interest group stuff you allude to, it does not discount the very significant fact that uneducated/underprivileged folks (usually, disproportionately minorities) were definitely targets of predatory lending practices which were often institutional.
37 · umber desi said
The latter, plus all sorts of payments and conditions tacked on. Some examples from HUD, although you can find many other websites if you google “predatory mortgage lending”.
No, you merely suggested it. But thanks for that “Rahul can neither confirm nor deny Louiecypher’s racism “
Her fellow San Franciscan Dianne Feinstein did help out a serial killer in the 80s . Got panned for that. She’s pretty saggy now.
40 · louiecypher said
I didn’t suggest it either, but yI trust your judgment on whether you should be sensitive to insinuations on this issue.
Hey, I took your claim that you voted for Obama on face value, didn’t I? As I mentioned earlier, the most charitable explanation would mean that your sexism trumped your racism 🙂
I understand that predatory lending exists but the problem this time around was also compounder by people lying on their mortgage apps and borrowing beyond their means from a January 13, 2008 NYT article
” IT’S NOT JUST THE LENDERS There has been plenty of talk about “predatory lending,†but “predatory borrowing†may have been the bigger problem. As much as 70 percent of recent early payment defaults had fraudulent misrepresentations on their original loan applications, according to one recent study. The research was done by BasePoint Analytics, which helps banks and lenders identify fraudulent transactions; the study looked at more than three million loans from 1997 to 2006, with a majority from 2005 to 2006. Applications with misrepresentations were also five times as likely to go into default”. Link
33 · Rahul said
Finally…someone displays some sympathy toward the hedge fund community, innocent victims of unscrupulous brokers.
42 · Rahul said
Yes Rahul, you are a paradigm of equanimity. Thanks for getting me to search the dark corners of my relatively priviledge in the pyramid of victimology black as coal sat-shudra soul.
OK, I’m totally on board. I saw the name Kamala Harris, and wondered if she was Indian-Am, but decided not. Now, I’m filled in — black/Indian-Am. A prosecutor who believes in second chances. Raised by her single-mother doctor/cancer researcher. La belled test tubes in the lab. I’m crossing my fingers that I”m going to get to cast a vote for her as President in 8 years.
http://www.kamalaharris.org/news/282
The SF magazine piece is fabulous. I also love the picture of her with her mother at her swearing in. Her mom has that exact look of pride I’ve seen on so many mother’s faces everywhere.
46 · bj said
Too bad second chances for MS-13 members can come at the expense of people like the Bolognas.
Pathetic south asians wish to claim kinship with any successful leader in America with the slightest connection to south asia.
48 · Tenali said
Prema, you should hold back on the use of “pathetic”. Surprise us…make us like you by telling us how wheatish we look today and then whammo let us have it full force. Variety is the spice of life.
45 · louiecypher said
You’re welcome, louie-louie. Think of me as the Fair and Lovely of your aatma.