Kamala Harris: Democrats' Anti-Palin
by Ben Smith
It’s easy to understand why Kamala Harris, California’s next attorney general, is being called the future of the Democratic Party, a rising political star in the mold of one of her big supporters — President Barack Obama.
At first glance, the president and Harris have much in common: Both are mixed-race children of immigrants raised by a single mother; both are eloquent, telegenic big-city lawyers with strong liberal credentials who catapulted from relative obscurity to the national stage. And like the first African-American president, Harris has broken a long-standing barrier — she’s California’s first African-American attorney general and the first woman to hold the office.
But Harris, whose position, potential and glamour will most likely give her as high a national profile as she wants, resists the comparisons.
“It’s flattering,” she told POLITICO, just weeks after claiming victory in a photo-finish race against Steve Cooley, her Republican opponent. Nevertheless, “these comparisons make me uncomfortable because I know what I want to do. I am really excited about being attorney general.”
(Word that some eager Democrats have dubbed her the “anti-Palin” draws a one-word reply: “oy.”)
Instead, what Harris mostly wants to talk about is an issue that’s almost entirely off the national radar.
“What I would like to contribute to the conversation,” she added, “is an in-depth discussion about what we can do to create smarter criminal justice policy.”
But Harris will have to do it over the Democrats’ growing buzz about her.
When she broke out of a six-candidate primary field in the race for attorney general, the San Francisco prosecutor won big endorsements from party heavyweights, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, as well as endorsements from labor unions like the Service Employees International Union and all of California’s top newspapers. She also was the only down ballot Democrat for whom President Obama fundraised this year.
Read the Full Essay @ Politico
by Ben Smith
It’s easy to understand why Kamala Harris, California’s next attorney general, is being called the future of the Democratic Party, a rising political star in the mold of one of her big supporters — President Barack Obama.
At first glance, the president and Harris have much in common: Both are mixed-race children of immigrants raised by a single mother; both are eloquent, telegenic big-city lawyers with strong liberal credentials who catapulted from relative obscurity to the national stage. And like the first African-American president, Harris has broken a long-standing barrier — she’s California’s first African-American attorney general and the first woman to hold the office.
But Harris, whose position, potential and glamour will most likely give her as high a national profile as she wants, resists the comparisons.
“It’s flattering,” she told POLITICO, just weeks after claiming victory in a photo-finish race against Steve Cooley, her Republican opponent. Nevertheless, “these comparisons make me uncomfortable because I know what I want to do. I am really excited about being attorney general.”
(Word that some eager Democrats have dubbed her the “anti-Palin” draws a one-word reply: “oy.”)
Instead, what Harris mostly wants to talk about is an issue that’s almost entirely off the national radar.
“What I would like to contribute to the conversation,” she added, “is an in-depth discussion about what we can do to create smarter criminal justice policy.”
But Harris will have to do it over the Democrats’ growing buzz about her.
When she broke out of a six-candidate primary field in the race for attorney general, the San Francisco prosecutor won big endorsements from party heavyweights, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, as well as endorsements from labor unions like the Service Employees International Union and all of California’s top newspapers. She also was the only down ballot Democrat for whom President Obama fundraised this year.
Read the Full Essay @ Politico
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