NYT with an interesting back-story of Harris’s narrow (and unexpected) victory for California AG back in 2010 …
“The first thing to know about Kamala Harris’s campaign for California attorney general is that she was not necessarily favored to win.
It was 2010 — the pinnacle of the Tea Party’s power — and Ms. Harris was running statewide for the first time and struggling to shed the same San Francisco liberal label that Donald J. Trump is yet again wielding as an epithet.
…
Ms. Harris was facing a formidable Republican foe that year in Steve Cooley, the popular and moderate district attorney of Los Angeles County.
Mr. Cooley’s reputation as an evenhanded, corruption-busting prosecutor had put him tied or narrowly ahead of Ms. Harris entering
October — largely on the strength of his uncommon popularity for a Republican in Los Angeles. He had won election three times in what is the state’s most populous Democratic stronghold.
Ms. Harris was running out of both time and money when she arrived at
their only debate on the first Tuesday of October. Then, about 45 minutes into the hourlong clash, Mr. Cooley gave an answer that was frank, fateful and foolish.
… Ms. Harris would escape a month later with one of the narrowest statewide victories in modern California history — by less than 0.85 percent of the vote. Yet even on election night, Ms. Harris’s chances had appeared so bleak that Mr. Cooley declared victory. The race remained unsettled for three weeks.
… Inside the practice courtroom, Mr. Leonard outlined that the $150,000 salary of the California attorney general was half of the $292,300 salary that Mr. Cooley was earning as the local district attorney. If he double-dipped by taking a taxpayer-paid pension as a former district attorney and a taxpayer-paid salary as the state attorney general, Mr. Cooley would be in line to make more than $400,000.
…
“Do you plan to double-dip by taking both a pension and your salary as attorney general?” Mr. Leonard asked.
“Yes, I do,” Mr. Cooley said without hesitation.
He glanced at Ms. Harris. She said nothing.
“I earned it.”
But Mr. Cooley was not yet done. “I definitely earned whatever pension rights I have, and I will certainly rely upon that to supplement the very low, incredibly low salary that’s paid to the attorney general,” he added.
“It was tone deaf,” Mr. Riggs said. “It was startling,” Mr. Leonard said. “It was awful,” Mr. Morain said. “It was jaw-dropping,” Mr. Smith said. …”
Nearly 14 years ago, Kamala Harris’s opponent in the California attorney general’s race gave an answer at a little-watched debate that was frank — and fateful for the future Democratic presidential nominee.
www.nytimes.com
. Amazing view otherwise.
