Coming Up Kamala

kamala_harris.jpg 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.

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About Taz

Taz is an activist, organizer and writer based in California. She is the founder of South Asian American Voting Youth (SAAVY), curates MutinousMindState.tumblr.com and blogs at TazzyStar.blogspot.com. Follow her at twitter.com/tazzystar

64 thoughts on “Coming Up Kamala

  1. You’re welcome, louie-louie. Think of me as the Fair and Lovely of your aatma.

    I was thinking you might best be compared to colon cleanse.

  2. 51 · louiecypher said

    I was thinking you might best be compared to colon cleanse.

    Whatever somebody of your social stature is most familiar with. Personally I consider the enema of my enemy my friend.

  3. Whatever somebody of your social stature is most familiar with. Personally I consider the enema of my enemy my friend.

    Hmmm….my “social stature”. Rahul it sounds like you have inherited some casteist bias.

  4. Too bad second chances for MS-13 members can come at the expense of people like the Bolognas.

    Good if she can get the Willie Horton accusations addressed early. Is Kamala Catholic? I’m wondering about the politically difficult anti-death penalty stance.

  5. Good if she can get the Willie Horton accusations addressed early. Is Kamala Catholic? I’m wondering about the politically difficult anti-death penalty stance.

    Willie Horton is not a fitting analogy. Both the Bolognas (i.e. the victims) and their murderers are the same race, another reason I get a little hot under the collar about the lazy charge of racism. They were killed as they were mistaken for members of a rival gang.

  6. As much as 70 percent of recent early payment defaults had fraudulent misrepresentations on their original loan applications, according to one recent study

    umber desi, point taken. but why not ask for due diligence on part of the bank officials and mortgage brokers? it’s not that hard to get credit scores of potential debtors or get a picture of their financial health. how come they never caught these misrepresentations? wall street was so eargerly lapping up MBSs that the incentives for maintaining the checks in the mortagage approval process were virtually non-existent.

  7. 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?

    Ennis don’t worry, she’s not exactly Michel Foucault’s type…

  8. Mal-content

    I never said that the lending institutions were not the problem, the crazy part is that it is not accurate to say that the borrowers are the victims. Enough sidetracking from me, we can get back to discussing Kamala 🙂

  9. 53 · louiecypher said

    Hmmm….my “social stature”. Rahul it sounds like you have inherited some casteist bias.

    I couldn’t think of a better way to get that kind of bias.

  10. Too bad second chances for MS-13 members can come at the expense of people like the Bolognas.

    Why do these MS-13 members keep getting 2nd chances. Do the liberal elite have any idea how bad these people are.

  11. Both the Bolognas (i.e. the victims) and their murderers are the same race, another reason I get a little hot under the collar about the lazy charge of racism

    heh heh. that loucipher seems to be so oversensitive and keeps thinking it is called a racist for no reason.. why i wonder… also, funny defenses of non racist attitude both with obama and willie horton, good comedy… he and geraldine ferraro should get their act on the road…

  12. Kamala Harris is a fascinating personality and so is her sister (Her sister heads up ACLU’s chapter in the Bay Area)…I agree that when multiple identities are at play…the one thats chosen by an individual as the primary idnetity, is the one that matters. But Kamala I think is a little like Obama post-race and post-gender. She’d make a fabulous attorney general and hopefully a powerful judge sometime in the not-too-distant future.

  13. Does it really matter what she identifies herself as. Look at it like this, if she was walking down a street where no one knew of her she would go by unnoticed as a mixed race woman – not desi; although she looks Black to me – just!

    I’m from the West Indies and there are Jamaican-Indians (aka Coolies) all over the Caribbean. It’s a very good mix; the women are so beautiful. Also,If you know cricket take a look at the West Indian team you will find a few coolies playing for the WI.

    I cannot understand the negative, hurtful, spiteful comments from shallow minded people – DAMN NEGHEADS!!!