{"id":35085,"date":"2024-07-23T20:29:45","date_gmt":"2024-07-24T03:29:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=35085"},"modified":"2024-07-23T20:29:46","modified_gmt":"2024-07-24T03:29:46","slug":"kamala-harris-actual-record-never-seemed-to-matter-before-will-it-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/07\/23\/kamala-harris-actual-record-never-seemed-to-matter-before-will-it-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Kamala Harris\u2019 actual record never seemed to matter before. Will it now?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/newspack-missionlocal.s3.amazonaws.com\/mission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/558c45c4b320cd1bea03ae4fa79972b6.png 2x\" height=\"80\" width=\"80\" src=\"https:\/\/newspack-missionlocal.s3.amazonaws.com\/mission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/558c45c4b320cd1bea03ae4fa79972b6.png\" alt=\"A man with a neutral expression wearing a cardigan and tie in front of a brick wall.\"> by\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/missionlocal.org\/author\/joee\/\">JOE ESKENAZI<\/a><\/strong> JANUARY 28, 2019 (MissionLocal.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newspack-missionlocal.s3.amazonaws.com\/mission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Screen-Shot-2019-01-27-at-10.39.52-PM-e1548659147231.png?fit=850%2C508&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Photo by Miki Katoni, January 2019<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newspack-missionlocal.s3.amazonaws.com\/mission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/mission-local-logo-300x300.jpg?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"Mission Local logo, with blue and orange lines on the shape of the Mission District\" class=\"wp-image-639216\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Sign up below to get Mission Local\u2019s&nbsp;<strong>free newsletter<\/strong>, a daily digest of news you won\u2019t find elsewhere.Sign up<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-presidential-candidate-s-success-and-appeal-have-always-been-distinct-from-her-documented-achievements\">The presidential candidate\u2019s success and appeal have always been distinct from her documented achievements<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Sitting across the table of a Mission Street cafe, I asked a longtime former associate of Kamala Harris what lines of attack her enemies might take. This was a non-starter. \u201cOh no,\u201d was the reply. \u201cI\u2019m not gonna antagonize her. That woman\u2019s gonna be president.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That was in 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You could say this statement (and the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20151127005330\/https:\/\/modernluxury.com\/san-francisco\/story\/the-unstoppable-rise-of-kamala-harris\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">resulting article<\/a>) were prescient. But, frankly, it really wasn\u2019t so much a prediction of the future as an acknowledgement of the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newspack-missionlocal.s3.amazonaws.com\/mission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/mission-local-logo-300x300.jpg?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"Mission Local logo, with blue and orange lines on the shape of the Mission District\" class=\"wp-image-639216\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Want the latest on the Mission and San Francisco? Sign up for our&nbsp;<strong>free daily newsletter<\/strong>&nbsp;below.Sign up<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cKamala has clearly and strategically and relentlessly been running for office for a long, long time,\u201d another former political colleague told me four years ago. \u201cAnd she wants what they all want \u2014&nbsp;<em>the next thing<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The next thing was always on the horizon. The only surprise is that it may come so soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-vimeo wp-block-embed-vimeo\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Kamala Harris Rally - Oakland City Hall 1\/27\/19\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/313741558?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.missionculturalcenter.org\/shop\/p\/our-mision-statement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.broadstreetads.com\/assets\/d375efc8-3118-451b-9600-05530671ea19.jpg\" alt=\"August Art show\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>With Senator Harris\u2019 entry into the increasingly crowded field of Democratic presidential aspirants for 2020, a number of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/magazine\/story\/2019\/01\/24\/kamala-harris-2020-history-224126\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">national publications<\/a>&nbsp;have&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2019\/jan\/21\/kamala-harris-2020-president-election-run-meteoric-rise?CMP=share_btn_tw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">published stories<\/a>&nbsp;detailing her&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2019\/jan\/19\/kamala-harris-2020-election-top-cop-prosecutor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">up-and-down tenure<\/a>&nbsp;here as San Francisco District Attorney and California\u2019s Attorney General.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Make no mistake, this is good and worthwhile journalism. But it\u2019s good and worthwhile journalism built upon good and worthwhile journalism; Harris\u2019 accomplishments (and missteps) both locally and in Sacramento were covered in quite a bit of detail during an era when more journalists were employed to work this and every beat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The details they uncovered often didn\u2019t reflect well on our erstwhile DA and AG (See: Her former romantic interest Willie Brown&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/articles.latimes.com\/1994-11-29\/news\/mn-2787_1_brown-associates\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">placing her<\/a>&nbsp;on $95K-a-year commissions and buoying her career; rampant ineptitude and dysfunction and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/archives.sfweekly.com\/thesnitch\/2010\/12\/14\/a-timeline-of-problems-at-the-sfpd-dna-lab\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">cover-ups of all the above<\/a>&nbsp;at the DNA and Crime Labs; the San Francisco DA\u2019s office inexplicably applying for \u2014&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/bayarea\/article\/SF-to-lose-millions-for-border-billings-3201837.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">and receiving<\/a>&nbsp;\u2014 millions of federal dollars earmarked for border counties it was forced to pay back; this city&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/news\/article\/S-F-cites-parents-of-chronically-truant-kids-3209547.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">citing the parents<\/a>&nbsp;of truant children \u2026 and much,&nbsp;<em>much<\/em>&nbsp;more). &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/jenniferrosdail.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.broadstreetads.com\/assets\/5608e33b-2c09-471e-a539-a5fb014bd56e.gif\" alt=\"Jennifer SR\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>And yet we \u2014 San Franciscans and Californians \u2014 have elected Harris to higher and higher office. And that\u2019s because one of the many abilities Harris possesses is to appeal to voters in a manner that transcends \u2014 and even belies \u2014 her actual record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This ability applies not only to voters who\u2019ve never met her but allies who have worked alongside her for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI love her as a person, because I have seen her sit up at her desk late at night and worry about powerless people in jail,\u201d says one. And yet: \u201cHer policy is not as strong as my love of her.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the flip side, there are plenty of political movers and shakers in this city with very little&nbsp;love for Harris who are more than happy to point out the shortcomings of her policy \u2014 before casually noting, \u201cI could still support her.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, the net result is the same. The pitfalls of Harris\u2019 actual record have not yet detracted from her appeal. Or her viability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s a pretty neat trick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\" id=\"attachment_397856\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/missionlocal.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Screen-Shot-2019-01-27-at-11.09.54-PM-e1548659520952.png?resize=780%2C408&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-397856\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Image from a film by Miki Katoni.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Polls taken on the eve of Harris\u2019 2016 rout of Loretta Sanchez for a senate seat listed three main takeaways for voters: Harris instilled them with a \u201cvery vague, broad positive feeling\u201d; she did a \u201cdecent-to-good job\u201d as AG; and she is a Democrat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHas her record&nbsp;<em>ever<\/em>&nbsp;mattered?\u201d ponders a longtime city political player with presidential campaign experience. \u201cDemocrats have always had a resume fallacy. They like people with these jam-packed resumes. And our resume candidates get into races against GOP candidates who are good on-message.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This does not appear to have been lost on Harris. In Oakland yesterday, during her hometown kickoff rally, she was loose and upbeat. She was far more ebullient and high-energy than San Franciscans might have recalled her being 15 years ago when she won her first DA\u2019s race. It was a boisterous speech well-tailored to today\u2019s Democratic audiences (if you took a shot every time Harris said \u201cfight,\u201d you\u2019re probably only waking up just now).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She was good on-message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Harris\u2019 demeanor and talking points (\u201cWe can do better!\u201d) mirrored those a longtime city politico observed her make back in October during a campaign event in Reno for Nevada Senate candidate Jacky Rosen (Rosen won that race, as did so many of the candidates Harris criss-crossed the nation to support in 2018 \u2014 a wise and beneficial use of Harris\u2019 political capital). Harris\u2019 Reno appearance was described as \u201ca lot more spontaneous than what we would recall here in San Francisco \u2014 and a lot more of a leftist message.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was, per the observer, \u201ctotally obvious she was running for president.\u201d He likened her October Nevada appearance before 100 or 200 party stalwarts to a comedian trying out new material in smaller clubs with an eye on a showcase performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yesterday\u2019s Oakland crowd was estimated at 20,000, and Harris\u2019 speech was broadcast live on several networks and pored over on the Internet afterward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mic drop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\" id=\"attachment_397857\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/missionlocal.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Screen-Shot-2019-01-27-at-11.11.38-PM-e1548659692365.png?resize=780%2C422&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-397857\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Image from a film by Miki Katoni.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>One hangup for Harris is that her old material doesn\u2019t play as well as it used to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To wit, the&nbsp;<em>New York Times<\/em>&nbsp;on Jan. 17&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/01\/17\/opinion\/kamala-harris-criminal-justice.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ran an op-ed by University of San Francisco law professor Lara Bazelon<\/a>&nbsp;belying Harris\u2019 claim that she was a so-called \u201cprogressive prosecutor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The op-ed was damning. But it only reinforced much of what remedial readers of local or state news would already have known. Harris\u2019 record on drug cases, cash bail, legal marijuana, Proposition 47, police use-of-force, and other \u201cprogressive\u201d issues has not been stellar (in some cases, it hasn\u2019t even been extant). Harris was furthermore elected AG on the promise of criminal justice reform, but it\u2019s hard to argue she greatly altered the state\u2019s status quo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And yet, it remains to be seen if this will weigh her down in a presidential contest when it failed to do so before and never has. Will a \u201cvery vague, broad positive feeling\u201d be enough, yet again?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cDoes&nbsp;<em>anyone<\/em>&nbsp;think the No. 1 issue in America right now is how progressive Kamala Harris was 15 years ago?\u201d asks one San Francisco political strategist. \u201cWill it matter to progressives in a caucus in Iowa? I don\u2019t think it\u2019ll be about fact-checking. It\u2019ll be about organizing campaigns.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Organizing campaigns is something Harris\u2019 record is less ambiguous about. She\u2019s solid here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>California\u2019s junior senator has, to this point, been blessed with flawed opponents who have often made strategically indefensible decisions. But she is a fierce competitor who will not be outworked. She is a voracious fund-raiser with the drive to make the asks that other candidates shy away from. She has cultivated tech barons; her picture is hanging in Caribbean restaurants in the D.C. suburbs; she counts the Obamas as personal friends. She has, in the words of one begrudging critic\/admirer, \u201cenough connections to wire all of Washington.\u201d &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Additionally, competitors attempting to outflank her on the left are faced with the task of explaining to voters that, in the age of Trump, the female candidate of color isn\u2019t progressive enough. \u201cWe had a little lab experiment on that in San Francisco,\u201d notes one observer dryly. \u201cIt didn\u2019t work out so well.\u201d &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With her anodyne, ever-malleable messaging and access to greater and greater sources of fund-raising wealth, Kamala Harris is a stellar modern political candidate (access to wealth is, in fact, the overwhelming requirement for political success. Whether Harris\u2019 fund-raising abilities can withstand a few lackluster primary results may remain to be seen).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Separate and apart from all that, Harris may yet serve as a national Rorschach test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Voters will look at her record and see what they want to see: They may applaud her decision as DA to&nbsp;<em>not<\/em>&nbsp;charge a cop-killer with the death penalty, be dispirited by her subsequent quest as AG to&nbsp;<em>enforce<\/em>&nbsp;the death penalty \u2014 or be confused and angered by a future lurid campaign ad featuring either of the above (or undocumented immigrants gunning down San Franciscans, which has proven effective in the past).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But voters may also look at Kamala Harris \u2014 the person \u2014 and see what they want to see. They will look at a smart, strong biracial woman and she will serve as a mirror for the nation. She will reflect back Americans\u2019 negative biases about women and minorities. Or she will reflect back positive aspirations for a more inclusive nation. People will, in short, see their own political visions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whether Americans, writ large, like what they see won\u2019t just determine Harris\u2019 future. It may well determine the country\u2019s. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\" id=\"attachment_397858\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/missionlocal.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Screen-Shot-2019-01-27-at-11.14.33-PM-e1548659792760.png?resize=780%2C405&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-397858\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">To be continued. Image from a film by Miki Katoni.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/missionlocal.org\/author\/joee\/\">JOE ESKENAZI<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"mailto:getbackjoejoe@gmail.com\">getbackjoejoe@gmail.com<\/a><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/EskSF\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Managing Editor\/Columnist. Joe was born in San Francisco, raised in the Bay Area, and attended U.C. Berkeley. He never left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cYour humble narrator\u201d was a writer and columnist for SF Weekly from 2007 to 2015, and a senior editor at San Francisco Magazine from 2015 to 2017. You may also have read his work in the Guardian (U.S. and U.K.); San Francisco Public Press; San Francisco Chronicle; San Francisco Examiner; Dallas Morning News; and elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He resides in the Excelsior with his wife and three (!) kids, 4.3 miles from his birthplace and 5,474 from hers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Northern California branch of the Society of Professional Journalists named Eskenazi the 2019 Journalist of the Year.<a href=\"https:\/\/missionlocal.org\/author\/joee\/\">More by Joe Eskenazi<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by\u00a0JOE ESKENAZI JANUARY 28, 2019 (MissionLocal.org) Sign up below to get Mission Local\u2019s&nbsp;free newsletter, a daily digest of news you won\u2019t find elsewhere.Sign up The presidential candidate\u2019s success and appeal have always been distinct from her documented achievements Sitting across the table of a Mission Street cafe, I asked a&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/07\/23\/kamala-harris-actual-record-never-seemed-to-matter-before-will-it-now\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35085"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35085"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35086,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35085\/revisions\/35086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}