San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris

The first woman elected to her position in city history, San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris has become one of the fastest rising stars on the political landscape. Dubbed by Newsweek as one of the country’s “most powerful women,” Harris has now joined the crowded field of candidates seeking to replace Jerry Brown as California Attorney General, a race that promises to be one of the most closely watched in the nation.

The Capitol Morning Report, the daily online subscription resource first published the following story after Harris' visit and has graciously allowed the SPC to share it with you.

By Laura Lynne Powell, Capitol Morning Report

     San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris brought her campaign for Attorney General to the Sacramento Press Club Thursday, saying that she wants to impose reforms that are "smart on crime."
     The AG position comes with a bully pulpit, and Harris said she would use it to bring the kinds of changes statewide that she has already made in San Francisco. She credited her reforms there with having increased the conviction rate to the highest in 15 years. But true success in law enforcement, she said, is crime prevention.
     Harris referred several times to a book she authored last year, "Smart on Crime: A Prosecutor's Plan for Making Us Safe," (she's one of several statewide candidates who have published books recently) where she describes her view that law enforcement could be improved by copying a public health model. When faced with an epidemic, she said, the public health model invests in prevention and early intervention. "If you have to deal with it in the emergency room, it's far too late and far more expensive," she said.
     She said a program she established in San Francisco that provides monitoring and support for low-level offenders between the ages of 18 and 24, an age where we can still "mold and shape a human being," has reduced recidivism in that group from 54 percent to less than 10 percent.

Harris' zeal for reform has brought her a lot of attention since her 2003 election as SF DA, the first woman and first African American to hold that job. Furthering the public's interest in the attractive 45-year-old is her friendship with Barack Obama, her appearance on Oprah, and media speculation about her own political ambitions. She's been dubbed "the female Barack Obama" and the New York Times pondered if she could become the first female president of the United States.
The first question to Harris after her 10 minute talk was about her well known opposition to the death penalty. Her 5 minute response basically said that it's expensive and doesn't work. Death row is filled with octogenarians who are going to die before they are executed, she said.

But despite her personal beliefs, she said she continues to prosecute death penalty cases because it is the law.

In response to another question, she condemned Arizona's new law concerning illegal immigrants, calling it "misguided and counterproductive."
Harris was raised by parents who were students at UC Berkeley in the turbulent 60s "who spent most of their time screaming and chanting." She graduated from Howard University and had internships with the late US Sen. Alan Cranston, and with pollster Peter Hart. She returned home to get her law degree from UC Hastings and decided there to become a prosecutor. She did so because "law enforcement has such a profound and direct impact upon the most vulnerable among us," she said. "In the process of giving us safety, it can also give us dignity." Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .