Kamala Harris - For California Attorney General 2010

Harris Launches Run for AG Spot

By Evan Hill, Cal Law
November 13, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris filed papers to run for state attorney general on Wednesday, though a run will depend on the as-yet-undecided political moves of current AG Jerry Brown and Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

By declaring her candidacy, though, Harris has opened the door to two years of political jostling by those who'd like to replace her as DA.

The row of dominoes that would have to fall for Harris to truly make a go of the AG's race has been an open secret and remains the same. She said she will not challenge Brown, a Democrat, if he runs for reelection.
Ask the Prosecutor

Check out some video excerpts of San Francisco DA Kamala Harris taking questions from reporters on her AG candidacy.

Brown has dropped hints that he wants to run for governor — a post he has held before — but Feinstein hasn't ruled out her own campaign in 2010.

California political watchers say there is little chance a Democrat will challenge Feinstein if she runs, which would leave both Brown and Harris in place.

But on Wednesday, just a few days after voters elected Sen. Barack Obama to be the nation's first African-American president, Harris laid out some potential priorities were she to become the first woman, or African-American, to hold the position of California's top cop.

She said taking on gang crime, predatory lending and prison reform would top her list, and trumpeted the success of her "smart on crime" approach in San Francisco.

"We have achieved the highest conviction rates of the office in over a dozen years," she said.

Harris' outspoken campaigning and fundraising for Obama raised the question of whether she would be in line for a post in the president-elect's Department of Justice.

On Wednesday, Harris would not say she had ruled out taking such a position, but emphasized her focus on running for AG.

"I'm clear about what I'm doing, I'm running for attorney general of the state of California," she said. "I am a career prosecutor and a native Californian, and those are my first two loves."

On Wednesday, the mood in the DA's office was dreary, said one San Francisco prosecutor who requested anonymity.

More than 10 prosecutors have left in recent months — though four replacements have been hired — and attorneys there worry that with Harris focused on 2010 so soon after devoting significant time to the Obama campaign, the office will suffer, he said.

Harris said she would spend the next "many, many" months talking to Californians about criminal justice issues, and she will likely have to make a strong case to compete statewide, where views on issues like capital punishment — which Harris personally opposes — often diverge from those in the Bay Area.

Just months into her first term, San Francisco police officer Isaac Espinoza was shot and killed on a street in the city's Bayview district. Harris sparked outrage by quickly declaring she wouldn't seek the death penalty for David Hill, the man who was later convicted of Espinoza's murder, and Feinstein called for such a punishment at Espinoza's funeral.

A 2006 Field Poll found that 63 percent of the state favored the death penalty for serious crimes.

Harris' stance on capital punishment will be a challenge for her, said John Pitney Jr., a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College.

"But it's hard to see that any California Democrat would be sunk, given the state's strong Democratic tendencies," he said.

On Wednesday, Harris seemed to find a route through the thorny issue, saying that as AG she would "put the rule of law above the rule of politics and put aside my personal position … and enforce the death penalty as the law dictates."

With Harris officially in the running, local eyes now turn to potential successors. Mayor Gavin Newsom — another gubernatorial hopeful — would appoint Harris' replacement until an election could be held.

Early speculation centered on James Hammer and William Fazio, two private defense attorneys with long experience in the DA's office.

Both said they were interested in the job: Hammer said he would be "honored" to accept an appointment, and Fazio said he would "seriously consider" it.

Fazio ran for DA unsuccessfully in 1995, 1999 and 2003 and said he would like to lead the office now "to do what I had intended to do." Hammer, who left the DA's office in 2004, and is known for his work on the infamous dog mauling case, said people have been encouraging him to run if Harris' spot opened.

"There's obviously been a real crisis in homicides in San Francisco in the last couple of years," he said, "and the last couple of years [in the DA's office] I did nothing but homicides and worked real closely with the police department, and I think that relationship would serve the city well."

In the Hall of Justice, some said Assistant DA Paul Henderson, a top Harris deputy, stands a good chance of being appointed.

Henderson has represented the office before the county board of supervisors, so he is known in City Hall, and he also spent time there lobbying for the Community Justice Center, one of Newsom's pet projects.

Should she both turn down a spot in Obama's administration and fail in her run for AG, she remains a strong candidate for mayor, said San Francisco pollster David Latterman.

"She's cleaned her office up some," he said. "She's very politically expedient and very careful. ... She's prominent in all the mailers you see, her endorsement is very important to people."

Source: law.com