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"content": "\u003cp>Whether President Joe Biden bows to the growing chorus of \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/joe-biden/more-democrats-call-biden-step-down-2024-race-press-conference-rcna161486\">elected Democrats\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/11/poll-biden-drop-out-election/\">Democratic voters\u003c/a> calling for him to exit the 2024 race or continues to seek a second term as a visibly frail 81-year-old, suddenly everyone is taking another good hard look at \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/tag/kamala-harris/\">Kamala Harris\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vice presidents rarely get much attention. What attention Harris has gotten on the job hasn’t been particularly positive. Counter to the reputation she cultivated early on in the campaign trail as a pragmatic politician and sharp-minded prosecutor, public opinion on Harris soured in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/projects/kamala-harris-approval-rating-polls-vs-biden-other-vps/#:~:text=A%20California%20native%2C%20Harris%20is,according%20to%20a%20Times%20average.\">summer of 2021\u003c/a> and has mostly stayed sour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That was partly thanks to the White House saddling her with a series of \u003ca href=\"https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/06/harris-biden-immigration-voting-rights.html\">unenviable and intractable tasks\u003c/a>. Beyond that, her role, like that of most vice presidents, has been high on profile but low on actual responsibility. It’s a job perhaps best described by fictional \u003ca href=\"https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/veep-final-episode-review/\">Veep Selina Meyer\u003c/a> as the political equivalent of being “declawed, defanged, neutered, ball-gagged, and sealed in an abandoned coal mine.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nor was Harris faring much better with voters in her home state. Last year, 59% of California voters in a Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll said they would not welcome her at the top of the ticket.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But now that Harris is being considered as the most likely substitute for Biden, more voters seem to be warming to her. A fresh Washington Post poll found that the vast majority of \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/11/poll-biden-drop-out-election/\">Democratic voters nationwide would be “satisfied”\u003c/a> with Harris at the top of the ticket. The same poll found her narrowly beating Trump in a head-to-head election among registered voters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And so the nation is catching itself back up to speed on all things Harris — and that means catching up on a life of accomplishment and controversy here. More than any other vice president in generations, Kamala Harris’ biography is singularly Californian.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Born in Oakland, bussed to school in Berkeley, tested by San Francisco’s cutthroat municipal politics and propelled onto the national stage as the state’s top law enforcement officer and then its first female senator of color, Harris’ approach to politics and policymaking were honed here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now that voters are reconsidering whether Harris has what it takes to be president of the United States — and as \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/tag/donald-trump/\">Donald Trump\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/trump-vice-president-vance-rubio-burgum-rnc-6cc438a8370a21b2631f5a53b06b71d0\">JD Vance\u003c/a> train their \u003ca href=\"https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/republicans-turn-focus-harris-talk-replacing-biden-democratic-111705713\">oppo-machine \u003c/a>upon her — we’re resurrecting this look at her California years and career. Here are nine ways that California shaped Kamala Harris and that Harris shaped California.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>1. A child of Berkeley\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In a state full of transplants, Harris is a lifelong Californian.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She was born in 1964 in Oakland — the hospital a little over a mile from the city hall where, more than half a century later, she would announce her short-lived 2020 bid for the presidency. She spent her childhood in Berkeley during the Free Speech Movement, born to immigrant parents who met while getting their PhDs and protesting for civil rights at UC Berkeley. Harris’ father, Donald Harris, is from Jamaica, and her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, is from India. The couple split when Harris was 7, and Harris and her sister Maya were raised mostly by her mother, who died in 2009.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the first Democratic presidential debate in 2019, Harris \u003ca href=\"https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/girl-senator-harris-vice-president-biden-spar-desegregation/story?id=64007842\">famously skewered Joe Biden\u003c/a> — then her campaign rival — for his past opposition to federally mandated busing to desegregate public schools. For Harris, she said, the issue was “personal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Specifically, Harris \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2019/07/23/who-is-real-kamala-harris-her-sister-maya-knows-answer/?utm_term=.375222da13c3\">rode the “red rooster”\u003c/a> from Berkeley’s working-class flatlands to Thousand Oaks Elementary School at the base of the affluent north Berkeley hills. This was 1969, just one year after Berkeley Unified \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyside.com/2018/10/16/a-radical-decision-an-unfinished-legacy\">introduced\u003c/a> its “two-way” busing program across its elementary schools. Berkeley being Berkeley, unlike local integration plans across the country, the city had undertaken this one on its own accord.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11901143\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/Art.16-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11901143\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/Art.16-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Kamala Harris as a young girl.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1753\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/Art.16-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/Art.16-800x548.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/Art.16-1020x698.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/Art.16-160x110.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/Art.16-1536x1052.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/Art.16-2048x1402.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/Art.16-1920x1315.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kamala Harris, at age 7, in Berkeley. In her memoir, Harris recalls attending events as a young girl at The Rainbow Sign, including a Nina Simone concert. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Kamala Harris/Penguin Random House)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After the debate dust-up, Harris clarified that she \u003ca href=\"https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/harris-says-busing-should-be-considered-by-school-districts-not-federally-mandated\">does not support federally mandated busing\u003c/a>, a policy stance not so dissimilar from the one she needled Biden over.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Traversing back and forth between different strata of society — black, white and Asian; well-off and working-class — is a familiar trope in Harris’ biography.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It wasn’t a homogenous life,” said Debbie Mesloh, a friend who has also worked for Harris as a communication director and a consultant. “She’s a very resourceful person in that she can move in between these worlds.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harris spent her teenage years in Montreal, moving there with her sister and mother when Gopalan accepted a university research position there. She earned a political science and economics degree at Howard University in Washington D.C. but returned to California to get her law degree in 1989 at the University of California, Hastings in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Until her most recent move to Washington, she called California home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fresh out of law school, she joined the Alameda County district attorney’s office in 1990, serving there for eight years before crossing the bay to San Francisco. In 2003, she unexpectedly won the election as San Francisco district attorney, where she served two terms before her narrow election as state attorney general in 2010. She was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>2. The influence of king/queen-maker Willie Brown\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Former state Assembly Speaker and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown has helped accelerate many a successful political career in California (including that of Gov. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/tag/gavin-newsom/\">Gavin Newsom\u003c/a>). Harris got a boost from Brown, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In March 1994, San Francisco Chronicle’s legendary columnist Herb Caen described the scene at Brown’s surprise 60th birthday party. Clint Eastwood was there, wrote Caen, and he “spilled champagne on the Speaker’s new steady, Kamala Harris.” Brown had a reputation for dating much younger women. In his column, Caen described Harris, then a deputy district attorney of Alameda County, as “something new in Willie’s love life. She’s a woman, not a girl.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The relationship ended after two years, but her connection to Brown, three decades her senior, did have an outsized effect on her career.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11995841\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1554px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/Screenshot-2024-07-16-at-10.18.42%E2%80%AFAM.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11995841\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/Screenshot-2024-07-16-at-10.18.42%E2%80%AFAM.png\" alt=\"A vintage image of a Black man in a tuxedo and a woman in a black dress.\" width=\"1554\" height=\"870\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/Screenshot-2024-07-16-at-10.18.42 AM.png 1554w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/Screenshot-2024-07-16-at-10.18.42 AM-800x448.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/Screenshot-2024-07-16-at-10.18.42 AM-1020x571.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/Screenshot-2024-07-16-at-10.18.42 AM-160x90.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/Screenshot-2024-07-16-at-10.18.42 AM-1536x860.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1554px) 100vw, 1554px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Willie Brown and Kamala Harris in 1994. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I would think it’s fair to say that most of the people in San Francisco met her through Willie,” John Burton, who used to be president pro tem of the state Senate, former chair of the California Democratic Party and a San Francisco political powerhouse in his own right, told \u003ca href=\"https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/08/09/kamala-harris-2020-president-profile-san-francisco-elite-227611\">Politico\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The speaker gave Harris a couple of plum positions on two state regulatory boards — the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board and the California Medical Assistance Commission. “If you were asked to be on a board that regulated medical care, would you say no?” Harris told \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfweekly.com/news/kamalas-karma/\">SFWeekly\u003c/a> a few years later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harris’ connection to Brown also helped her connect with San Francisco’s high society and California’s political elite. In 1996, a year after Brown became mayor and Harris broke off the relationship, she joined the board of trustees at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Harris ran for San Francisco district attorney nearly a decade later, \u003ca href=\"https://public.netfile.com/Pub2/AllFilingsByFiler.aspx?id=6679828\">her first contribution \u003c/a>came from Elaine McKeon, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Elaine-McKeon-key-figure-in-SFMOMA-s-growth-dies-2502350.php\">chair of the museum’s board\u003c/a>. More — much more — poured in from donors with last names like Fisher, Getty, Buell, Haas and other noble houses of the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But from the beginning of her political career, Harris has seen her connection with Brown as a liability — a cudgel that opponents \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfweekly.com/news/kamalas-karma/\">can use against her\u003c/a> and, at worst, a tired, sexist trope used to \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2019/08/01/tomi-lahren-apologizes-after-saying-kamala-harris-slept-her-way-top/?noredirect=on\">question the legitimacy\u003c/a> of her ascendant career. In the first run to be San Francisco’s district attorney, Harris deliberately hired a campaign consultant known for working with clients outside the Brown political machine. During that same campaign, she described her past relationship with the former speaker and mayor as “an albatross hanging around my neck.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for Brown, he recently told a reporter, regretfully, that he and Harris are \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/commentary/2024/03/california-willie-brown-reflects-career/\">no longer in touch\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>3. A lack of clarity\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>You saw it in the presidential race. You’ve seen it in her \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/14/politics/kamala-harris-border-answer-fallout/index.html\">as vice president\u003c/a>. As the New York Times once\u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/27/us/politics/kamala-harris-2020-election.html?searchResultPosition=6\"> put it\u003c/a>: “The content of her message remains a work in progress.” We saw it before in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While running the California Department of Justice, Harris was often loath to wade into the political battles taking place just a few blocks away in the state Legislature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There was a bill that would have required her office to investigate police shootings. She did not take a formal position (though she did \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Kamala-Harris-sees-safeguards-in-D-A-s-5972586.php\">tell a reporter\u003c/a> it would be bad policy). The bill died.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There was the proposal to force police departments to gather data on the ethnicity and race of the civilians they stop. Harris also \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2019-08-05/kamala-harris-police-shootings-black-lives-matter\">declined\u003c/a> to take a position. It passed anyway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And on the biggest criminal justice overhaul in California in a generation, Harris also kept mum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prompted by a judicial decree that the state had to dramatically cut the population of its overcrowded prison system, “realignment” was a package of state policies passed in 2011 that shifted tens of thousands of inmates out of state custody and into county jails or onto the rolls of local probation systems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite in many ways reflecting the lessons described in her book “Smart on Crime,” which argued that non-violent criminals can be redirected into less punitive systems without jeopardizing public safety, Harris, the state’s top law enforcement officer, was silent on the policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That earned a rebuke from the Los Angeles Times Editorial Board, which \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-senate-endorsement-20161006-snap-story.html\">wrote\u003c/a> in its endorsement of her 2016 Senate candidacy that Harris “has been too cautious and unwilling to stake out a position on controversial issues, even when her voice would have been valuable to the debate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What some critics call prevarication or flip-floppery, her supporters call pragmatism. Those are just two ways of describing the same quality, said Corey Cook, a political scientist and provost at St. Mary’s College and a longtime observer of San Francisco politics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She’s not an ideologue,” he said, meaning rather than stake out the boldest, ideologically coherent agenda, she tends to focus on individual fixes to specific problems. Hence, the “\u003ca href=\"http://v/\">3am agenda\u003c/a>” of her presidential campaign, a collection of policy changes designed to address the problems that keep the average voter up at night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The idea that she would have consistent positions on issues informed by ideology isn’t who she is,” Cook said. Harris may appear to pick her battles, he said, because for her, “the only lasting solutions are going to be the ones that are able to sustain a majority coalition of support.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>4. Making a mark: sex crimes, domestic violence, child abuse\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Harris has never shied away from the “tough on crime” label when it comes to a certain class of criminals: domestic violence perpetrators, child abusers and sex traffickers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After nearly a decade in Alameda County and a short stint as a deputy district attorney in San Francisco (she left, calling the leadership there “\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Top-S-F-Prosecutor-Quits-D-A-s-Office-2710499.php\">dysfunctional\u003c/a>”), in 2000, Harris joined the San Francisco city attorney’s office under Louise Renne.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Renne said she was looking for someone to head the office’s Child and Family Service unit, which investigates child abuse cases. This was not considered a prestigious post. Prosecutors inside the unit had taken to calling it “kiddie law.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Renne thought Harris, who had focused on child abuse and sexual exploitation cases in Alameda County, would be a good fit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That instinct was confirmed on Harris’ first day on the job, Renne said, when a number of children who had been separated from their parents were formally adopted into new families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She comes into my office and says, ‘Come on, Louise, we’ve got to go over to court. There are going to be adoptions today,’ and she had all these teddy bears,” Renne recalled. “She knew the occasion. She knew it was an important one, and it should be celebrated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harris’ focus on the victims of abuse and exploitation continued after she was elected as San Francisco’s District Attorney.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t know what the term ‘teenage prostitute’ means. I have never met a ‘teenage prostitute.’ I have met exploited kids,” Mesloh, then Harris’ communications director, recalls her boss saying at her first all-staff meeting. Harris then ordered her prosecutors not to use the term in court. A year later, Harris sponsored a bill putting the crime of human trafficking into the state criminal code.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some Democrats say Harris’ prior life as a prosecutor with a focus on sex crimes would be a \u003ca href=\"https://www.thedailybeast.com/why-kamala-harris-is-the-prosecutor-this-nation-needs\">key advantage\u003c/a> in a potential general election contest against Trump, who has been found \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/05/09/e-jean-carroll-trump-trial-verdict/\">liable in a civil case for sexual assault\u003c/a> and recently became the first former president to be convicted of a felony. In that case, the 34 counts were related to the falsifying of business records in connection to an alleged sexual encounter with a pornographic film actress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But using the full force of the law to penalize pimps, traffickers and other abusers has earned Harris some criticism from \u003ca href=\"https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/07/29/first-amendment-limits-backpage-escort-ads-219034\">civil libertarians\u003c/a> and from \u003ca href=\"https://www.lamag.com/citythinkblog/kamala-harris-sex-workers/\">advocates for sex workers\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In one of her final acts as California’s attorney general, Harris had the CEO of Backpage.com, Carl Ferrer, arrested on pimping charges. Backpage was an online classifieds site known for its “adult services” section, which prosecutors had long warned served as a marketplace for sex traffickers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The arrest was based on a contentious legal argument that pitted anti-trafficking fervor against the First Amendment. Since Backpage was merely a platform for ads, its lawyers argued that it was protected by the same law that protects Google from being held liable for illicit websites listed in its search results. A superior court judge \u003ca href=\"https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Backpage-Order.pdf\">agreed\u003c/a> and threw out the case, though an amended charge, pursued by Harris’ successor, then-Attorney General Xavier Becerra, led Ferrer to \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/true-crime/wp/2018/04/13/backpage-ceo-carl-ferrer-pleads-guilty-in-three-states-agrees-to-testify-against-other-website-officials/\">plead guilty\u003c/a> to money laundering and conspiracy to facilitate prostitution and to the shuttering of the site.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>5. The Harris mantra: ‘Smart on Crime’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>One of the reasons Harris became known as a rising star District Attorney was her focus on prevention, which she explained in her book, \u003cem>Smart on Crime\u003c/em>, written in 2009, the year before she ran for attorney general.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Public health practitioners know that the most beneficial use of resources is to prevent an outbreak, not to treat it,” Harris wrote. “Instead of just reacting to a crime every time it is committed, we have to step back and figure out how to disrupt the routes of infection.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11995813\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/GettyImages-1206642641.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11995813\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/GettyImages-1206642641.jpg\" alt=\"A woman wearing a business suit with two flags in the background. \" width=\"1024\" height=\"704\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/GettyImages-1206642641.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/GettyImages-1206642641-800x550.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/GettyImages-1206642641-1020x701.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/GettyImages-1206642641-160x110.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kamala Harris, the district attorney for San Francisco, stands for a portrait in her Hall of Justice office on Tuesday, April 28, 2009, in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Mike Kepka/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images))\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Harris’ “Back on Track” program, considered the most successful implementation of this idea, redirected first-time, non-violent drug offenders into supervised education, job training courses, therapy sessions and life skills classes. It was a modest program but a novel one compared to what most other big city law enforcement officers were doing in 2005.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In that time period, I think that she was a radical,” Mesloh said. Cities around the country have since emulated the program. When Harris became attorney general, she launched a similar pilot program for Los Angeles County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harris’ focus on prevention produced some of her key accomplishments as district attorney. However, in the context of the 2020 presidential primary, some of those same accomplishments struck many critics on the left as overly punitive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The year after launching Back on Track, Harris introduced an anti-truancy initiative. Based on a statistical correlation that chronic class skippers are more likely to be both perpetrators and victims of homicide, Harris’ office began threatening the parents of persistently absent students with prosecution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harris has been quick to point out that the “stick” in this carrot-and-stick approach only came out after a series of escalating interventions, including mandatory meetings with school staff and social workers. No one went to jail under the program, though a handful of parents were fined. Within a few years, city truancy rates fell by a \u003ca href=\"https://sfdistrictattorney.org/sfs-anti-truancy-initiative-goes-statewide\">third\u003c/a> and Harris took credit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2010, her office \u003ca href=\"http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=200920100SB1317\">sponsored a bill\u003c/a> to take the program statewide. In the hands of other district attorneys, the statute was used in at least a \u003ca href=\"https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2011/05/11/truancy-crackdown-lands-oc-parents-in-jail/\">handful\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://hanfordsentinel.com/news/local/truancy-case-not-a-first-for-lemoore-mom/article_53291246-075a-11e1-bc7c-001cc4c002e0.html\">of\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://kmph.com/archive/mom-jailed-for-kids-truancy-hanford-mother-sentenced-to-180-days\">cases\u003c/a> to put parents behind bars. Critics have said that the policy has been disproportionately \u003ca href=\"https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kamala-harris-truancy-arrests-2020-progressive-prosecutor_n_5c995789e4b0f7bfa1b57d2e\">wielded against poor parents of color\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a 2019 \u003ca href=\"https://crooked.com/podcast/2020-kamala-harris-on-american-identity-and-secret-recipes/\">interview\u003c/a>, Harris said she regretted any “unintended consequences” of the state law.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>6. Harris has (almost) always opposed capital punishment\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Her opposition to the death penalty has been one of the most controversial stands in her career, but it’s also an example for those who criticize her lack of consistency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On April 10, 2004, three months after her inauguration as San Francisco’s new district attorney, 29-year-old police officer Isaac Espinoza was gunned down by a 21-year-old with an AK-47. Three days later, Harris made good on a campaign promise and vowed not to seek the death penalty for the shooter. David Hill was later convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decision engendered a predictably fierce backlash from the police union and rebukes from politicians. “This is not only the definition of tragedy,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein said at Espinoza’s funeral, “it’s the special circumstance called for by the death penalty law.” The assembled officers cheered while Harris remained seated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of Harris’ critics say she has wavered in tougher political circumstances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2014, when a \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-death-penalty-appeal-20140821-story.html\">federal court judge ruled\u003c/a> that California’s administration of the death penalty was unconstitutional, Harris appealed the decision as state attorney general, arguing that it was “not supported by the law.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harris later \u003ca href=\"https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article74792387.html\">said\u003c/a> that she was obligated to defend capital punishment as the legal representative of the state. Many have pointed out that she was happy not to defend a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage that voters passed in Proposition 8 when it was challenged a year earlier. Harris’ response: She was merely reflecting the position of her client, Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She also \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/diaz/article/Harris-and-the-death-penalty-years-of-13693075.php?psid=e8d2h\">explained\u003c/a> that the judge’s ruling, which held that the long delays between sentencing and execution in California amounted to “cruel and unusual punishment,” could be used to justify speeding up the state’s system of capital punishment.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>7. Prosecutorial overreach controversies\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Both as district attorney and as state attorney general, Harris led offices that criminal justice advocates say were overly aggressive in pursuing convictions and lacked transparency in a way that belies Harris’ brand as a “\u003ca href=\"https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2020/08/10/kamala-harris-progressive-pioneer-san-francisco-da-column/3334668001/\">progressive prosecutor\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In March 2010, just as Harris was campaigning to become California’s attorney general, San Francisco authorities shut down a police department crime lab in the city’s Hunters Point naval yard. A technician named Deborah Madden was accused of skimming drugs, raising broader questions about the lab’s ability to appropriately handle evidence in criminal cases. (Madden later pleaded guilty).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harris immediately dismissed 20 drug cases, but the number eventually grew to \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Prosecutor-SFPD-ignored-tech-s-unreliability-3267300.php\">over 1,500 \u003c/a>after documents showed that prosecutors within Harris’ office had known about Madden’s potential unreliability months before the lab was closed but had neglected to tell defense attorneys.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A superior court judge later \u003ca href=\"https://legalpad.typepad.com/files/massulloorder.pdf\">excoriated\u003c/a> Harris’ office, writing that the violations infringed on the defendants’ constitutional rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Afterward, Harris formed a unit to handle the sharing of evidence with criminal defense attorneys. She has also said that she \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/crime-lab-scandal-rocked-kamala-harriss-term-as-san-francisco-district-attorney/2019/03/06/825df094-392b-11e9-a06c-3ec8ed509d15_story.html\">did not know\u003c/a> about the problems at the crime lab until after the scandal blew up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that hasn’t done much to assuage the concerns of critics who say Harris \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/opinion/kamala-harris-criminal-justice.html\">tended prosecutorial overreach\u003c/a>, which continued once Harris became the state’s attorney general.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11836111\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/GettyImages-168960200-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11836111\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/GettyImages-168960200-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A woman wearing a business suit gestures with her hands while standing at a podium. Two men are behind her.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1836\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/GettyImages-168960200-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/GettyImages-168960200-800x574.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/GettyImages-168960200-1020x732.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/GettyImages-168960200-160x115.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/GettyImages-168960200-1536x1102.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/GettyImages-168960200-2048x1469.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/GettyImages-168960200-1920x1377.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Then-California Attorney General Kamala Harris speaks at a news conference on May 17, 2013, in Los Angeles. \u003ccite>(Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 2015, for example, lawyers for an inmate convicted of murder attempted to have the case thrown out after new evidence suggested that Riverside County prosecutors lied on the stand during the initial trial. Harris’ office, representing the state prison system, resisted, only backing down after footage of one of her \u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/2sCUrhgXjH4?t=962\">deputies being eviscerated\u003c/a> by three federal judges went viral.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for her since-abandoned presidential campaign said Harris ordered her office to drop the challenge as soon as “she became aware” of the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Critics point to other examples. There was her office’s decision to \u003ca href=\"https://observer.com/2015/03/california-prosecutor-falsifies-transcript-of-confession/\">defend\u003c/a> a molestation conviction that local prosecutors had secured with a false confession.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Asked about that case, the spokesperson said that it was “long-standing practice” for prosecutors within the Californian Department of Justice to file legal motions without the express approval of the Attorney General, implying that, again, Harris was not aware that her office was making the argument. But in this case, the spokesperson added, state prosecutors believed “the original case…was valid and that the victim in the case deserved justice.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another example: her office’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/11/us/kamala-harris-progressive-prosecutor.html\">refusal\u003c/a> to take over a 2011 Seal Beach mass shooting case after a judge recused the entire Orange County District Attorney’s office for widespread prosecutorial misconduct. Harris \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/11/us/kamala-harris-progressive-prosecutor.html\">defended\u003c/a> her decision: “It was being handled at the local level.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Such a track record is to be expected of any prosecutor, said Sally Lieber, who worked with Harris on human trafficking legislation while representing Mountain View in the state Assembly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is an adversarial system, and so she was filling a particular role, but I think that she was able to do it in a very sophisticated, smart and responsive way,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>8. As California’s AG: Playing hardball\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Harris’ biggest accomplishment as California’s attorney general was securing a financial settlement with some of the country’s largest banks accused of illegally foreclosing on homeowners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In September 2011, Harris pulled out of ongoing negotiations between attorneys general from nearly every U.S. state and the five banks, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JhiSDgCc-g&feature=youtu.be&t=558\">calling\u003c/a> the proposed deal of $2 billion to $4 billion “crumbs on the table.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10405137\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/01/RS4476_148166024-e1431097814175.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10405137\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/01/RS4476_148166024-e1431097814175.jpg\" alt=\"A closeup of a woman with her hand raised.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1335\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Attorney General Kamala Harris has won an extension of the state’s deadline to process an initiative that would impose the death penalty for gay sex. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Harris was not the first attorney general to walk away, but the departure of the country’s largest state seemed to have its intended effect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few months later, with California back in the mix, a new deal was struck. This time, California got $20.2 billion in debt reductions and direct financial assistance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, some consumer groups and outside experts were critical of the deal, arguing that the banks would have been forced to write off much of that bad debt eventually. “\u003ca href=\"https://www.creditslips.org/creditslips/2012/02/the-servicing-settlement-banks-1-public-0.html\">All sizzle, no steak\u003c/a>,” is how Georgetown law professor Adam Levitin put it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Harris’ willingness to play hardball did result in a bigger settlement, said Rob McKenna, former Washington attorney general who was part of the negotiations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s possible for states to overstate the impact they had on the final settlement. The former New York Attorney General (Eric Schneiderman) would sometimes make claims about the settlement and improvements he had obtained,” he said. “But it’s fair to say that Attorney General Harris negotiated and obtained some improvement in the settlement for California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>9. Kamala, the campaigner\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Harris launched her 2020 presidential campaign high on fanfare and hype, only to \u003ca href=\"https://www.politico.com/states/california/story/2019/12/03/kamala-harris-drops-out-of-presidential-race-1230369\">flame out less than a year later\u003c/a> before even making it to Iowa. It was a historically stark underperformance from a candidate that many Democratic insiders believed would be a formidable contender.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, Harris’ electoral track record has been mixed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her first spin on the campaign trail was a superlative success. In her 2003 race for San Francisco District Attorney, she pushed out a two-term incumbent and won more votes than any other candidate running for a city-wide office that year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harris’ first run for statewide office didn’t go quite smoothly. Her race for Attorney General against Republican Steve Cooley wasn’t called until \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-nov-25-la-me-cooley-20101125-story.html\">weeks after Election Day\u003c/a>. Yes, Harris won. But she did so by less than a percentage point.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, after 18 years in which not a single Republican has won statewide office in California, it’s easy to look back at that nail-biter of an election and see an early sign of Harris’ weakness as a candidate. But at the time, the calculus was a little different. Cooley, a relative moderate, was considered the favorite to win against Harris, a San Francisco liberal. This was 2010, which proved to be a historic landslide election for the GOP. The fact that Harris eked it out despite those headwinds, and as the first woman and person of color to hold that office no less, \u003ca href=\"https://www.politico.com/story/2010/12/kamala-harris-democrats-anti-palin-046783\">cemented her status as a rising star\u003c/a> in the Democratic Party.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11995814\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/GettyImages-1272701490.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11995814\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/GettyImages-1272701490.jpg\" alt=\"A man and woman wearing face masks walk outside.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"929\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/GettyImages-1272701490.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/GettyImages-1272701490-800x726.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/GettyImages-1272701490-1020x925.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/GettyImages-1272701490-160x145.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sen. Kamala Harris, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, met with Gov. Gavin Newsom and CalFire officials to review the devastation of the Creek fire in Pineridge on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2020. \u003ccite>(Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Also rising was Gavin Newsom. The two were San Francisco friends who ran in the same social circles even before their political careers ignited. They share the same political consultants. And when the two most prestigious California elective offices opened up — for governor and U.S. senator — they sidestepped a ballot rivalry when she successfully ran for the Senate, as did he for governor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom has \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/video/full-newsom-i-m-not-convinced-we-ve-learned-the-lessons-from-covid-192566853729\">said\u003c/a> — and recently \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-07-12/as-kamala-harris-rises-gavin-newsoms-short-term-presidential-prospects-fall\">reiterated\u003c/a> — that he would not challenge Harris for the Democratic presidential nomination should Biden withdraw. Although \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/elections/2024/07/gavin-newsom-for-president-assets-liabilities/\">Newsom’s name frequently appears\u003c/a> on lists of hypothetical Biden replacements, she is already on the ticket and is seen by many as the heir-apparent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Regardless, both are publicly saying now, again and again, that they are backing Biden.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story incorporates prior reporting and interviews from CalMatters’ 2020 election coverage.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Is she on track to be the first Democratic president from California? Here are nine ways that California shaped Kamala Harris and that Harris has shaped California.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Whether President Joe Biden bows to the growing chorus of \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/joe-biden/more-democrats-call-biden-step-down-2024-race-press-conference-rcna161486\">elected Democrats\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/11/poll-biden-drop-out-election/\">Democratic voters\u003c/a> calling for him to exit the 2024 race or continues to seek a second term as a visibly frail 81-year-old, suddenly everyone is taking another good hard look at \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/tag/kamala-harris/\">Kamala Harris\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vice presidents rarely get much attention. What attention Harris has gotten on the job hasn’t been particularly positive. Counter to the reputation she cultivated early on in the campaign trail as a pragmatic politician and sharp-minded prosecutor, public opinion on Harris soured in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/projects/kamala-harris-approval-rating-polls-vs-biden-other-vps/#:~:text=A%20California%20native%2C%20Harris%20is,according%20to%20a%20Times%20average.\">summer of 2021\u003c/a> and has mostly stayed sour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That was partly thanks to the White House saddling her with a series of \u003ca href=\"https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/06/harris-biden-immigration-voting-rights.html\">unenviable and intractable tasks\u003c/a>. Beyond that, her role, like that of most vice presidents, has been high on profile but low on actual responsibility. It’s a job perhaps best described by fictional \u003ca href=\"https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/veep-final-episode-review/\">Veep Selina Meyer\u003c/a> as the political equivalent of being “declawed, defanged, neutered, ball-gagged, and sealed in an abandoned coal mine.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nor was Harris faring much better with voters in her home state. Last year, 59% of California voters in a Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll said they would not welcome her at the top of the ticket.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But now that Harris is being considered as the most likely substitute for Biden, more voters seem to be warming to her. A fresh Washington Post poll found that the vast majority of \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/11/poll-biden-drop-out-election/\">Democratic voters nationwide would be “satisfied”\u003c/a> with Harris at the top of the ticket. The same poll found her narrowly beating Trump in a head-to-head election among registered voters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And so the nation is catching itself back up to speed on all things Harris — and that means catching up on a life of accomplishment and controversy here. More than any other vice president in generations, Kamala Harris’ biography is singularly Californian.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Born in Oakland, bussed to school in Berkeley, tested by San Francisco’s cutthroat municipal politics and propelled onto the national stage as the state’s top law enforcement officer and then its first female senator of color, Harris’ approach to politics and policymaking were honed here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now that voters are reconsidering whether Harris has what it takes to be president of the United States — and as \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/tag/donald-trump/\">Donald Trump\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/trump-vice-president-vance-rubio-burgum-rnc-6cc438a8370a21b2631f5a53b06b71d0\">JD Vance\u003c/a> train their \u003ca href=\"https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/republicans-turn-focus-harris-talk-replacing-biden-democratic-111705713\">oppo-machine \u003c/a>upon her — we’re resurrecting this look at her California years and career. Here are nine ways that California shaped Kamala Harris and that Harris shaped California.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>1. A child of Berkeley\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In a state full of transplants, Harris is a lifelong Californian.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She was born in 1964 in Oakland — the hospital a little over a mile from the city hall where, more than half a century later, she would announce her short-lived 2020 bid for the presidency. She spent her childhood in Berkeley during the Free Speech Movement, born to immigrant parents who met while getting their PhDs and protesting for civil rights at UC Berkeley. Harris’ father, Donald Harris, is from Jamaica, and her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, is from India. The couple split when Harris was 7, and Harris and her sister Maya were raised mostly by her mother, who died in 2009.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the first Democratic presidential debate in 2019, Harris \u003ca href=\"https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/girl-senator-harris-vice-president-biden-spar-desegregation/story?id=64007842\">famously skewered Joe Biden\u003c/a> — then her campaign rival — for his past opposition to federally mandated busing to desegregate public schools. For Harris, she said, the issue was “personal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Specifically, Harris \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2019/07/23/who-is-real-kamala-harris-her-sister-maya-knows-answer/?utm_term=.375222da13c3\">rode the “red rooster”\u003c/a> from Berkeley’s working-class flatlands to Thousand Oaks Elementary School at the base of the affluent north Berkeley hills. This was 1969, just one year after Berkeley Unified \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyside.com/2018/10/16/a-radical-decision-an-unfinished-legacy\">introduced\u003c/a> its “two-way” busing program across its elementary schools. Berkeley being Berkeley, unlike local integration plans across the country, the city had undertaken this one on its own accord.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11901143\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/Art.16-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11901143\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/Art.16-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Kamala Harris as a young girl.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1753\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/Art.16-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/Art.16-800x548.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/Art.16-1020x698.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/Art.16-160x110.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/Art.16-1536x1052.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/Art.16-2048x1402.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/Art.16-1920x1315.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kamala Harris, at age 7, in Berkeley. In her memoir, Harris recalls attending events as a young girl at The Rainbow Sign, including a Nina Simone concert. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Kamala Harris/Penguin Random House)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After the debate dust-up, Harris clarified that she \u003ca href=\"https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/harris-says-busing-should-be-considered-by-school-districts-not-federally-mandated\">does not support federally mandated busing\u003c/a>, a policy stance not so dissimilar from the one she needled Biden over.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Traversing back and forth between different strata of society — black, white and Asian; well-off and working-class — is a familiar trope in Harris’ biography.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It wasn’t a homogenous life,” said Debbie Mesloh, a friend who has also worked for Harris as a communication director and a consultant. “She’s a very resourceful person in that she can move in between these worlds.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harris spent her teenage years in Montreal, moving there with her sister and mother when Gopalan accepted a university research position there. She earned a political science and economics degree at Howard University in Washington D.C. but returned to California to get her law degree in 1989 at the University of California, Hastings in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Until her most recent move to Washington, she called California home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fresh out of law school, she joined the Alameda County district attorney’s office in 1990, serving there for eight years before crossing the bay to San Francisco. In 2003, she unexpectedly won the election as San Francisco district attorney, where she served two terms before her narrow election as state attorney general in 2010. She was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>2. The influence of king/queen-maker Willie Brown\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Former state Assembly Speaker and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown has helped accelerate many a successful political career in California (including that of Gov. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/tag/gavin-newsom/\">Gavin Newsom\u003c/a>). Harris got a boost from Brown, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In March 1994, San Francisco Chronicle’s legendary columnist Herb Caen described the scene at Brown’s surprise 60th birthday party. Clint Eastwood was there, wrote Caen, and he “spilled champagne on the Speaker’s new steady, Kamala Harris.” Brown had a reputation for dating much younger women. In his column, Caen described Harris, then a deputy district attorney of Alameda County, as “something new in Willie’s love life. She’s a woman, not a girl.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The relationship ended after two years, but her connection to Brown, three decades her senior, did have an outsized effect on her career.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11995841\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1554px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/Screenshot-2024-07-16-at-10.18.42%E2%80%AFAM.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11995841\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/Screenshot-2024-07-16-at-10.18.42%E2%80%AFAM.png\" alt=\"A vintage image of a Black man in a tuxedo and a woman in a black dress.\" width=\"1554\" height=\"870\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/Screenshot-2024-07-16-at-10.18.42 AM.png 1554w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/Screenshot-2024-07-16-at-10.18.42 AM-800x448.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/Screenshot-2024-07-16-at-10.18.42 AM-1020x571.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/Screenshot-2024-07-16-at-10.18.42 AM-160x90.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/Screenshot-2024-07-16-at-10.18.42 AM-1536x860.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1554px) 100vw, 1554px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Willie Brown and Kamala Harris in 1994. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I would think it’s fair to say that most of the people in San Francisco met her through Willie,” John Burton, who used to be president pro tem of the state Senate, former chair of the California Democratic Party and a San Francisco political powerhouse in his own right, told \u003ca href=\"https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/08/09/kamala-harris-2020-president-profile-san-francisco-elite-227611\">Politico\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The speaker gave Harris a couple of plum positions on two state regulatory boards — the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board and the California Medical Assistance Commission. “If you were asked to be on a board that regulated medical care, would you say no?” Harris told \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfweekly.com/news/kamalas-karma/\">SFWeekly\u003c/a> a few years later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harris’ connection to Brown also helped her connect with San Francisco’s high society and California’s political elite. In 1996, a year after Brown became mayor and Harris broke off the relationship, she joined the board of trustees at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Harris ran for San Francisco district attorney nearly a decade later, \u003ca href=\"https://public.netfile.com/Pub2/AllFilingsByFiler.aspx?id=6679828\">her first contribution \u003c/a>came from Elaine McKeon, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Elaine-McKeon-key-figure-in-SFMOMA-s-growth-dies-2502350.php\">chair of the museum’s board\u003c/a>. More — much more — poured in from donors with last names like Fisher, Getty, Buell, Haas and other noble houses of the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But from the beginning of her political career, Harris has seen her connection with Brown as a liability — a cudgel that opponents \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfweekly.com/news/kamalas-karma/\">can use against her\u003c/a> and, at worst, a tired, sexist trope used to \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2019/08/01/tomi-lahren-apologizes-after-saying-kamala-harris-slept-her-way-top/?noredirect=on\">question the legitimacy\u003c/a> of her ascendant career. In the first run to be San Francisco’s district attorney, Harris deliberately hired a campaign consultant known for working with clients outside the Brown political machine. During that same campaign, she described her past relationship with the former speaker and mayor as “an albatross hanging around my neck.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for Brown, he recently told a reporter, regretfully, that he and Harris are \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/commentary/2024/03/california-willie-brown-reflects-career/\">no longer in touch\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>3. A lack of clarity\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>You saw it in the presidential race. You’ve seen it in her \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/14/politics/kamala-harris-border-answer-fallout/index.html\">as vice president\u003c/a>. As the New York Times once\u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/27/us/politics/kamala-harris-2020-election.html?searchResultPosition=6\"> put it\u003c/a>: “The content of her message remains a work in progress.” We saw it before in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While running the California Department of Justice, Harris was often loath to wade into the political battles taking place just a few blocks away in the state Legislature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There was a bill that would have required her office to investigate police shootings. She did not take a formal position (though she did \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Kamala-Harris-sees-safeguards-in-D-A-s-5972586.php\">tell a reporter\u003c/a> it would be bad policy). The bill died.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There was the proposal to force police departments to gather data on the ethnicity and race of the civilians they stop. Harris also \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2019-08-05/kamala-harris-police-shootings-black-lives-matter\">declined\u003c/a> to take a position. It passed anyway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And on the biggest criminal justice overhaul in California in a generation, Harris also kept mum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prompted by a judicial decree that the state had to dramatically cut the population of its overcrowded prison system, “realignment” was a package of state policies passed in 2011 that shifted tens of thousands of inmates out of state custody and into county jails or onto the rolls of local probation systems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite in many ways reflecting the lessons described in her book “Smart on Crime,” which argued that non-violent criminals can be redirected into less punitive systems without jeopardizing public safety, Harris, the state’s top law enforcement officer, was silent on the policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That earned a rebuke from the Los Angeles Times Editorial Board, which \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-senate-endorsement-20161006-snap-story.html\">wrote\u003c/a> in its endorsement of her 2016 Senate candidacy that Harris “has been too cautious and unwilling to stake out a position on controversial issues, even when her voice would have been valuable to the debate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What some critics call prevarication or flip-floppery, her supporters call pragmatism. Those are just two ways of describing the same quality, said Corey Cook, a political scientist and provost at St. Mary’s College and a longtime observer of San Francisco politics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She’s not an ideologue,” he said, meaning rather than stake out the boldest, ideologically coherent agenda, she tends to focus on individual fixes to specific problems. Hence, the “\u003ca href=\"http://v/\">3am agenda\u003c/a>” of her presidential campaign, a collection of policy changes designed to address the problems that keep the average voter up at night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The idea that she would have consistent positions on issues informed by ideology isn’t who she is,” Cook said. Harris may appear to pick her battles, he said, because for her, “the only lasting solutions are going to be the ones that are able to sustain a majority coalition of support.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>4. Making a mark: sex crimes, domestic violence, child abuse\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Harris has never shied away from the “tough on crime” label when it comes to a certain class of criminals: domestic violence perpetrators, child abusers and sex traffickers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After nearly a decade in Alameda County and a short stint as a deputy district attorney in San Francisco (she left, calling the leadership there “\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Top-S-F-Prosecutor-Quits-D-A-s-Office-2710499.php\">dysfunctional\u003c/a>”), in 2000, Harris joined the San Francisco city attorney’s office under Louise Renne.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Renne said she was looking for someone to head the office’s Child and Family Service unit, which investigates child abuse cases. This was not considered a prestigious post. Prosecutors inside the unit had taken to calling it “kiddie law.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Renne thought Harris, who had focused on child abuse and sexual exploitation cases in Alameda County, would be a good fit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That instinct was confirmed on Harris’ first day on the job, Renne said, when a number of children who had been separated from their parents were formally adopted into new families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She comes into my office and says, ‘Come on, Louise, we’ve got to go over to court. There are going to be adoptions today,’ and she had all these teddy bears,” Renne recalled. “She knew the occasion. She knew it was an important one, and it should be celebrated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harris’ focus on the victims of abuse and exploitation continued after she was elected as San Francisco’s District Attorney.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t know what the term ‘teenage prostitute’ means. I have never met a ‘teenage prostitute.’ I have met exploited kids,” Mesloh, then Harris’ communications director, recalls her boss saying at her first all-staff meeting. Harris then ordered her prosecutors not to use the term in court. A year later, Harris sponsored a bill putting the crime of human trafficking into the state criminal code.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some Democrats say Harris’ prior life as a prosecutor with a focus on sex crimes would be a \u003ca href=\"https://www.thedailybeast.com/why-kamala-harris-is-the-prosecutor-this-nation-needs\">key advantage\u003c/a> in a potential general election contest against Trump, who has been found \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/05/09/e-jean-carroll-trump-trial-verdict/\">liable in a civil case for sexual assault\u003c/a> and recently became the first former president to be convicted of a felony. In that case, the 34 counts were related to the falsifying of business records in connection to an alleged sexual encounter with a pornographic film actress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But using the full force of the law to penalize pimps, traffickers and other abusers has earned Harris some criticism from \u003ca href=\"https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/07/29/first-amendment-limits-backpage-escort-ads-219034\">civil libertarians\u003c/a> and from \u003ca href=\"https://www.lamag.com/citythinkblog/kamala-harris-sex-workers/\">advocates for sex workers\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In one of her final acts as California’s attorney general, Harris had the CEO of Backpage.com, Carl Ferrer, arrested on pimping charges. Backpage was an online classifieds site known for its “adult services” section, which prosecutors had long warned served as a marketplace for sex traffickers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The arrest was based on a contentious legal argument that pitted anti-trafficking fervor against the First Amendment. Since Backpage was merely a platform for ads, its lawyers argued that it was protected by the same law that protects Google from being held liable for illicit websites listed in its search results. A superior court judge \u003ca href=\"https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Backpage-Order.pdf\">agreed\u003c/a> and threw out the case, though an amended charge, pursued by Harris’ successor, then-Attorney General Xavier Becerra, led Ferrer to \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/true-crime/wp/2018/04/13/backpage-ceo-carl-ferrer-pleads-guilty-in-three-states-agrees-to-testify-against-other-website-officials/\">plead guilty\u003c/a> to money laundering and conspiracy to facilitate prostitution and to the shuttering of the site.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>5. The Harris mantra: ‘Smart on Crime’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>One of the reasons Harris became known as a rising star District Attorney was her focus on prevention, which she explained in her book, \u003cem>Smart on Crime\u003c/em>, written in 2009, the year before she ran for attorney general.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Public health practitioners know that the most beneficial use of resources is to prevent an outbreak, not to treat it,” Harris wrote. “Instead of just reacting to a crime every time it is committed, we have to step back and figure out how to disrupt the routes of infection.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11995813\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/GettyImages-1206642641.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11995813\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/GettyImages-1206642641.jpg\" alt=\"A woman wearing a business suit with two flags in the background. \" width=\"1024\" height=\"704\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/GettyImages-1206642641.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/GettyImages-1206642641-800x550.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/GettyImages-1206642641-1020x701.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/GettyImages-1206642641-160x110.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kamala Harris, the district attorney for San Francisco, stands for a portrait in her Hall of Justice office on Tuesday, April 28, 2009, in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Mike Kepka/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images))\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Harris’ “Back on Track” program, considered the most successful implementation of this idea, redirected first-time, non-violent drug offenders into supervised education, job training courses, therapy sessions and life skills classes. It was a modest program but a novel one compared to what most other big city law enforcement officers were doing in 2005.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In that time period, I think that she was a radical,” Mesloh said. Cities around the country have since emulated the program. When Harris became attorney general, she launched a similar pilot program for Los Angeles County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harris’ focus on prevention produced some of her key accomplishments as district attorney. However, in the context of the 2020 presidential primary, some of those same accomplishments struck many critics on the left as overly punitive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The year after launching Back on Track, Harris introduced an anti-truancy initiative. Based on a statistical correlation that chronic class skippers are more likely to be both perpetrators and victims of homicide, Harris’ office began threatening the parents of persistently absent students with prosecution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harris has been quick to point out that the “stick” in this carrot-and-stick approach only came out after a series of escalating interventions, including mandatory meetings with school staff and social workers. No one went to jail under the program, though a handful of parents were fined. Within a few years, city truancy rates fell by a \u003ca href=\"https://sfdistrictattorney.org/sfs-anti-truancy-initiative-goes-statewide\">third\u003c/a> and Harris took credit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2010, her office \u003ca href=\"http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=200920100SB1317\">sponsored a bill\u003c/a> to take the program statewide. In the hands of other district attorneys, the statute was used in at least a \u003ca href=\"https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2011/05/11/truancy-crackdown-lands-oc-parents-in-jail/\">handful\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://hanfordsentinel.com/news/local/truancy-case-not-a-first-for-lemoore-mom/article_53291246-075a-11e1-bc7c-001cc4c002e0.html\">of\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://kmph.com/archive/mom-jailed-for-kids-truancy-hanford-mother-sentenced-to-180-days\">cases\u003c/a> to put parents behind bars. Critics have said that the policy has been disproportionately \u003ca href=\"https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kamala-harris-truancy-arrests-2020-progressive-prosecutor_n_5c995789e4b0f7bfa1b57d2e\">wielded against poor parents of color\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a 2019 \u003ca href=\"https://crooked.com/podcast/2020-kamala-harris-on-american-identity-and-secret-recipes/\">interview\u003c/a>, Harris said she regretted any “unintended consequences” of the state law.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>6. Harris has (almost) always opposed capital punishment\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Her opposition to the death penalty has been one of the most controversial stands in her career, but it’s also an example for those who criticize her lack of consistency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On April 10, 2004, three months after her inauguration as San Francisco’s new district attorney, 29-year-old police officer Isaac Espinoza was gunned down by a 21-year-old with an AK-47. Three days later, Harris made good on a campaign promise and vowed not to seek the death penalty for the shooter. David Hill was later convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decision engendered a predictably fierce backlash from the police union and rebukes from politicians. “This is not only the definition of tragedy,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein said at Espinoza’s funeral, “it’s the special circumstance called for by the death penalty law.” The assembled officers cheered while Harris remained seated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of Harris’ critics say she has wavered in tougher political circumstances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2014, when a \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-death-penalty-appeal-20140821-story.html\">federal court judge ruled\u003c/a> that California’s administration of the death penalty was unconstitutional, Harris appealed the decision as state attorney general, arguing that it was “not supported by the law.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harris later \u003ca href=\"https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article74792387.html\">said\u003c/a> that she was obligated to defend capital punishment as the legal representative of the state. Many have pointed out that she was happy not to defend a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage that voters passed in Proposition 8 when it was challenged a year earlier. Harris’ response: She was merely reflecting the position of her client, Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She also \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/diaz/article/Harris-and-the-death-penalty-years-of-13693075.php?psid=e8d2h\">explained\u003c/a> that the judge’s ruling, which held that the long delays between sentencing and execution in California amounted to “cruel and unusual punishment,” could be used to justify speeding up the state’s system of capital punishment.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>7. Prosecutorial overreach controversies\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Both as district attorney and as state attorney general, Harris led offices that criminal justice advocates say were overly aggressive in pursuing convictions and lacked transparency in a way that belies Harris’ brand as a “\u003ca href=\"https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2020/08/10/kamala-harris-progressive-pioneer-san-francisco-da-column/3334668001/\">progressive prosecutor\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In March 2010, just as Harris was campaigning to become California’s attorney general, San Francisco authorities shut down a police department crime lab in the city’s Hunters Point naval yard. A technician named Deborah Madden was accused of skimming drugs, raising broader questions about the lab’s ability to appropriately handle evidence in criminal cases. (Madden later pleaded guilty).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harris immediately dismissed 20 drug cases, but the number eventually grew to \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Prosecutor-SFPD-ignored-tech-s-unreliability-3267300.php\">over 1,500 \u003c/a>after documents showed that prosecutors within Harris’ office had known about Madden’s potential unreliability months before the lab was closed but had neglected to tell defense attorneys.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A superior court judge later \u003ca href=\"https://legalpad.typepad.com/files/massulloorder.pdf\">excoriated\u003c/a> Harris’ office, writing that the violations infringed on the defendants’ constitutional rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Afterward, Harris formed a unit to handle the sharing of evidence with criminal defense attorneys. She has also said that she \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/crime-lab-scandal-rocked-kamala-harriss-term-as-san-francisco-district-attorney/2019/03/06/825df094-392b-11e9-a06c-3ec8ed509d15_story.html\">did not know\u003c/a> about the problems at the crime lab until after the scandal blew up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that hasn’t done much to assuage the concerns of critics who say Harris \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/opinion/kamala-harris-criminal-justice.html\">tended prosecutorial overreach\u003c/a>, which continued once Harris became the state’s attorney general.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11836111\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/GettyImages-168960200-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11836111\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/GettyImages-168960200-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A woman wearing a business suit gestures with her hands while standing at a podium. Two men are behind her.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1836\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/GettyImages-168960200-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/GettyImages-168960200-800x574.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/GettyImages-168960200-1020x732.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/GettyImages-168960200-160x115.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/GettyImages-168960200-1536x1102.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/GettyImages-168960200-2048x1469.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/GettyImages-168960200-1920x1377.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Then-California Attorney General Kamala Harris speaks at a news conference on May 17, 2013, in Los Angeles. \u003ccite>(Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 2015, for example, lawyers for an inmate convicted of murder attempted to have the case thrown out after new evidence suggested that Riverside County prosecutors lied on the stand during the initial trial. Harris’ office, representing the state prison system, resisted, only backing down after footage of one of her \u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/2sCUrhgXjH4?t=962\">deputies being eviscerated\u003c/a> by three federal judges went viral.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for her since-abandoned presidential campaign said Harris ordered her office to drop the challenge as soon as “she became aware” of the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Critics point to other examples. There was her office’s decision to \u003ca href=\"https://observer.com/2015/03/california-prosecutor-falsifies-transcript-of-confession/\">defend\u003c/a> a molestation conviction that local prosecutors had secured with a false confession.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Asked about that case, the spokesperson said that it was “long-standing practice” for prosecutors within the Californian Department of Justice to file legal motions without the express approval of the Attorney General, implying that, again, Harris was not aware that her office was making the argument. But in this case, the spokesperson added, state prosecutors believed “the original case…was valid and that the victim in the case deserved justice.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another example: her office’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/11/us/kamala-harris-progressive-prosecutor.html\">refusal\u003c/a> to take over a 2011 Seal Beach mass shooting case after a judge recused the entire Orange County District Attorney’s office for widespread prosecutorial misconduct. Harris \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/11/us/kamala-harris-progressive-prosecutor.html\">defended\u003c/a> her decision: “It was being handled at the local level.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Such a track record is to be expected of any prosecutor, said Sally Lieber, who worked with Harris on human trafficking legislation while representing Mountain View in the state Assembly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is an adversarial system, and so she was filling a particular role, but I think that she was able to do it in a very sophisticated, smart and responsive way,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>8. As California’s AG: Playing hardball\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Harris’ biggest accomplishment as California’s attorney general was securing a financial settlement with some of the country’s largest banks accused of illegally foreclosing on homeowners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In September 2011, Harris pulled out of ongoing negotiations between attorneys general from nearly every U.S. state and the five banks, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JhiSDgCc-g&feature=youtu.be&t=558\">calling\u003c/a> the proposed deal of $2 billion to $4 billion “crumbs on the table.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10405137\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/01/RS4476_148166024-e1431097814175.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10405137\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/01/RS4476_148166024-e1431097814175.jpg\" alt=\"A closeup of a woman with her hand raised.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1335\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Attorney General Kamala Harris has won an extension of the state’s deadline to process an initiative that would impose the death penalty for gay sex. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Harris was not the first attorney general to walk away, but the departure of the country’s largest state seemed to have its intended effect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few months later, with California back in the mix, a new deal was struck. This time, California got $20.2 billion in debt reductions and direct financial assistance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, some consumer groups and outside experts were critical of the deal, arguing that the banks would have been forced to write off much of that bad debt eventually. “\u003ca href=\"https://www.creditslips.org/creditslips/2012/02/the-servicing-settlement-banks-1-public-0.html\">All sizzle, no steak\u003c/a>,” is how Georgetown law professor Adam Levitin put it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Harris’ willingness to play hardball did result in a bigger settlement, said Rob McKenna, former Washington attorney general who was part of the negotiations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s possible for states to overstate the impact they had on the final settlement. The former New York Attorney General (Eric Schneiderman) would sometimes make claims about the settlement and improvements he had obtained,” he said. “But it’s fair to say that Attorney General Harris negotiated and obtained some improvement in the settlement for California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>9. Kamala, the campaigner\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Harris launched her 2020 presidential campaign high on fanfare and hype, only to \u003ca href=\"https://www.politico.com/states/california/story/2019/12/03/kamala-harris-drops-out-of-presidential-race-1230369\">flame out less than a year later\u003c/a> before even making it to Iowa. It was a historically stark underperformance from a candidate that many Democratic insiders believed would be a formidable contender.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, Harris’ electoral track record has been mixed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her first spin on the campaign trail was a superlative success. In her 2003 race for San Francisco District Attorney, she pushed out a two-term incumbent and won more votes than any other candidate running for a city-wide office that year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harris’ first run for statewide office didn’t go quite smoothly. Her race for Attorney General against Republican Steve Cooley wasn’t called until \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-nov-25-la-me-cooley-20101125-story.html\">weeks after Election Day\u003c/a>. Yes, Harris won. But she did so by less than a percentage point.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, after 18 years in which not a single Republican has won statewide office in California, it’s easy to look back at that nail-biter of an election and see an early sign of Harris’ weakness as a candidate. But at the time, the calculus was a little different. Cooley, a relative moderate, was considered the favorite to win against Harris, a San Francisco liberal. This was 2010, which proved to be a historic landslide election for the GOP. The fact that Harris eked it out despite those headwinds, and as the first woman and person of color to hold that office no less, \u003ca href=\"https://www.politico.com/story/2010/12/kamala-harris-democrats-anti-palin-046783\">cemented her status as a rising star\u003c/a> in the Democratic Party.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11995814\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/GettyImages-1272701490.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11995814\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/GettyImages-1272701490.jpg\" alt=\"A man and woman wearing face masks walk outside.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"929\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/GettyImages-1272701490.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/GettyImages-1272701490-800x726.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/GettyImages-1272701490-1020x925.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/GettyImages-1272701490-160x145.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sen. Kamala Harris, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, met with Gov. Gavin Newsom and CalFire officials to review the devastation of the Creek fire in Pineridge on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2020. \u003ccite>(Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Also rising was Gavin Newsom. The two were San Francisco friends who ran in the same social circles even before their political careers ignited. They share the same political consultants. And when the two most prestigious California elective offices opened up — for governor and U.S. senator — they sidestepped a ballot rivalry when she successfully ran for the Senate, as did he for governor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom has \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/video/full-newsom-i-m-not-convinced-we-ve-learned-the-lessons-from-covid-192566853729\">said\u003c/a> — and recently \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-07-12/as-kamala-harris-rises-gavin-newsoms-short-term-presidential-prospects-fall\">reiterated\u003c/a> — that he would not challenge Harris for the Democratic presidential nomination should Biden withdraw. Although \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/elections/2024/07/gavin-newsom-for-president-assets-liabilities/\">Newsom’s name frequently appears\u003c/a> on lists of hypothetical Biden replacements, she is already on the ticket and is seen by many as the heir-apparent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Regardless, both are publicly saying now, again and again, that they are backing Biden.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story incorporates prior reporting and interviews from CalMatters’ 2020 election coverage.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "SF Democratic Party Throws Support Behind Kamala Harris if President Biden Steps Down",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 3:20 p.m. Friday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seven San Francisco Democratic Party leaders signed an \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24805382-kamala-letter\">open letter (DOC)\u003c/a> to the Democratic National Committee on Friday, urging them to support Vice President Kamala Harris as the nominee should President Joe Biden step aside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The announcement comes just a day after Biden’s news conference following this week’s NATO summit, where he reaffirmed his \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101906268/pressure-grows-on-president-biden-to-step-aside\">plans to stay in the race\u003c/a> despite concern from some fellow Democrats about his ability to defeat former President Trump in November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After Biden stumbled his way through last month’s debate against Trump, Thursday’s news conference was closely scrutinized as calls for him to pass the torch have escalated. Although the letter from San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee leaders did not explicitly urge Biden to exit the race, a couple of members joined those calls individually.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She’s polling better in swing states which is where this race will come down to nationally,” said DCCC member Bilal Mahmood, who called Harris “the only option to defeat Trump” in a \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/bilalmahmood/status/1811810736047538633\">social media post\u003c/a> on Friday. “\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I believe, on the individual level, he should step down. It’s a risk to down-ballot races as well,” Mahmood told KQED, noting that Harris choosing a new running mate could further energize the party’s base of voters. “Just a few months ago the House was in winning territory for Democrats, and now we are not.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The DCCC members who signed on to the letter were Mahmood, San Francisco Supervisor Matt Dorsey, Lanier Coles, Parag Gupta, Joe Sangirardi, Cedric Akbar and Jade Tu. Together they make up just under a third of the 24-member committee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our party has fought to undo the work of the first Trump administration,” Dorsey said in a statement. “If Donald Trump is re-elected President, he will take our country into a dark age.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Venture capitalist Ron Conway, a Democratic megadonor and a top sponsor for the DCCC gala on Thursday, has taken his concerns with Biden’s campaign performances directly to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnbc.com/2024/07/12/biden-ally-ron-conway-spoke-to-nancy-pelosi-about-concerns.html\">CNBC\u003c/a> reported Friday. Pelosi made waves when she said Wednesday on MSNBC that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11993449/pelosi-suggests-time-is-running-short-for-biden-to-reconsider-campaign\">“time is running short”\u003c/a> for Biden to decide whether he’ll stay in the race — a decision he has said repeatedly he’s already made.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, Mayor London Breed joined other Democratic mayors on Tuesday in a virtual meeting with President Biden. In an interview with \u003ca href=\"https://www.ktvu.com/video/1483285\">KTVU \u003c/a>this week, Breed told reporters she supports him staying in the race.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for Breed’s office declined to comment on the presidential ticket Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One recent \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24805344-national-voter-study-on-the-2024-us-presidential-election\">national poll (DOC)\u003c/a> conducted by Bendixen & Amandi found Biden trailing Trump with 42% of respondents saying they would vote for the current president and 43% prefer Trump. The same poll found Harris leading Trump 43% to 42%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harris has deep roots with San Francisco’s Democratic Party. She grew up in Berkeley and graduated from UC Law San Francisco before becoming San Francisco’s first female district attorney from 2004 to 2010 and later California’s attorney general.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This election is a fight for our democracy,” the letter from the DCCC members reads. “And Harris is the candidate with the most viable path to victory.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The political group has not collectively called for Biden to step down, but individual members are joining in on calls for him to exit the race.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 3:20 p.m. Friday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seven San Francisco Democratic Party leaders signed an \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24805382-kamala-letter\">open letter (DOC)\u003c/a> to the Democratic National Committee on Friday, urging them to support Vice President Kamala Harris as the nominee should President Joe Biden step aside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The announcement comes just a day after Biden’s news conference following this week’s NATO summit, where he reaffirmed his \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101906268/pressure-grows-on-president-biden-to-step-aside\">plans to stay in the race\u003c/a> despite concern from some fellow Democrats about his ability to defeat former President Trump in November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After Biden stumbled his way through last month’s debate against Trump, Thursday’s news conference was closely scrutinized as calls for him to pass the torch have escalated. Although the letter from San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee leaders did not explicitly urge Biden to exit the race, a couple of members joined those calls individually.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She’s polling better in swing states which is where this race will come down to nationally,” said DCCC member Bilal Mahmood, who called Harris “the only option to defeat Trump” in a \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/bilalmahmood/status/1811810736047538633\">social media post\u003c/a> on Friday. “\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I believe, on the individual level, he should step down. It’s a risk to down-ballot races as well,” Mahmood told KQED, noting that Harris choosing a new running mate could further energize the party’s base of voters. “Just a few months ago the House was in winning territory for Democrats, and now we are not.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The DCCC members who signed on to the letter were Mahmood, San Francisco Supervisor Matt Dorsey, Lanier Coles, Parag Gupta, Joe Sangirardi, Cedric Akbar and Jade Tu. Together they make up just under a third of the 24-member committee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our party has fought to undo the work of the first Trump administration,” Dorsey said in a statement. “If Donald Trump is re-elected President, he will take our country into a dark age.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Venture capitalist Ron Conway, a Democratic megadonor and a top sponsor for the DCCC gala on Thursday, has taken his concerns with Biden’s campaign performances directly to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnbc.com/2024/07/12/biden-ally-ron-conway-spoke-to-nancy-pelosi-about-concerns.html\">CNBC\u003c/a> reported Friday. Pelosi made waves when she said Wednesday on MSNBC that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11993449/pelosi-suggests-time-is-running-short-for-biden-to-reconsider-campaign\">“time is running short”\u003c/a> for Biden to decide whether he’ll stay in the race — a decision he has said repeatedly he’s already made.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, Mayor London Breed joined other Democratic mayors on Tuesday in a virtual meeting with President Biden. In an interview with \u003ca href=\"https://www.ktvu.com/video/1483285\">KTVU \u003c/a>this week, Breed told reporters she supports him staying in the race.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for Breed’s office declined to comment on the presidential ticket Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One recent \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24805344-national-voter-study-on-the-2024-us-presidential-election\">national poll (DOC)\u003c/a> conducted by Bendixen & Amandi found Biden trailing Trump with 42% of respondents saying they would vote for the current president and 43% prefer Trump. The same poll found Harris leading Trump 43% to 42%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harris has deep roots with San Francisco’s Democratic Party. She grew up in Berkeley and graduated from UC Law San Francisco before becoming San Francisco’s first female district attorney from 2004 to 2010 and later California’s attorney general.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This election is a fight for our democracy,” the letter from the DCCC members reads. “And Harris is the candidate with the most viable path to victory.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "extreme-court-puts-trump-above-the-law-in-immunity-ruling-california-democrats-say",
"title": "‘Extreme Court’ Puts Trump Above the Law In Immunity Ruling, California Democrats Say",
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"headTitle": "‘Extreme Court’ Puts Trump Above the Law In Immunity Ruling, California Democrats Say | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/supreme-court\">Supreme Court\u003c/a>’s decision on Monday that presidents have presumptive immunity from prosecution for official acts after leaving office drew sharp words from elected Democrats in the Bay Area and California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many agreed with the dissenting liberal justices who said the decision places presidents above the law. It was seen as \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11992718/supreme-court-hands-trump-a-major-win-does-it-undermine-democracy\">a major win for former President Trump\u003c/a> in the federal criminal case over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rep. Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House during the second half of Trump’s presidency, said the Supreme Court had given Trump a “political gift” and had “gone rogue with its decision, violating the foundational American principle that no one is above the law.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The former president’s claim of total presidential immunity is an insult to the vision of our founders, who declared independence from a King,” Pelosi said \u003ca href=\"https://pelosi.house.gov/news/press-releases/pelosi-statement-supreme-court-decision-violating-foundational-american\">in a statement\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California Reps. Zoe Lofgren and Adam Schiff, who both served on the House Jan. 6 committee, sharply condemned the decision. Schiff said the decision was “far worse than anything I imagined.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It would be difficult to overstate how much this opinion shifts the balance of power away from Congress and towards the presidency and how unshackled a corrupt president will now be,” Schiff said \u003ca href=\"https://schiff.house.gov/news/press-releases/statement-rep-schiff-slams-scotus-ruling-on-trumps-claims-of-presidential-immunity\">in a statement\u003c/a>. “The Court gives the president absolute power, and it will corrupt him, absolutely.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a Monday appearance on MSNBC, Lofgren noted that in last week’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11992512/the-aftermath-of-the-trump-biden-debate\">debate with President Biden\u003c/a>, Trump “would not commit to accepting the election results this November unless he won.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So we’ve got a problem here if he cannot be accountable if any president cannot be held accountable under the laws that exist,” she said. “That’s a complete departure from our history.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sen. Alex Padilla said \u003ca href=\"https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-statement-on-supreme-court-decision-granting-trump-partial-immunity-from-criminal-prosecution/\">in a statement\u003c/a> that the court “afforded future presidents carte blanche to abuse the powers of their office for political and personal gain and laid the foundation for Donald Trump to have absolute authority in a potential second term.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He cast the blame on Trump’s “handpicked justices,” a sentiment echoed by Rep. Anna Eshoo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t have an activist court; we have an extreme court,” Eshoo told KQED. “To read Justice Sotomayor’s dissent was enough to make any decent American weep. This Fourth of July will, I think, be the saddest of my life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Notably, Rep. Eric Swalwell said special counsel Jack Smith will make the argument in the election interference case that Trump’s conduct on Jan. 6 didn’t represent “official acts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is not a Trump victory,” he \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/RepSwalwell/status/1807808244263579789\">posted on X\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On this, he seemingly stands alone from his colleagues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/csmith\">Caroline Smith\u003c/a> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The Supreme Court’s decision that former President Trump has immunity from prosecution for ‘official acts’ drew sharp words from elected Democrats in the Bay Area and California.",
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"title": "‘Extreme Court’ Puts Trump Above the Law In Immunity Ruling, California Democrats Say | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/supreme-court\">Supreme Court\u003c/a>’s decision on Monday that presidents have presumptive immunity from prosecution for official acts after leaving office drew sharp words from elected Democrats in the Bay Area and California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many agreed with the dissenting liberal justices who said the decision places presidents above the law. It was seen as \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11992718/supreme-court-hands-trump-a-major-win-does-it-undermine-democracy\">a major win for former President Trump\u003c/a> in the federal criminal case over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rep. Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House during the second half of Trump’s presidency, said the Supreme Court had given Trump a “political gift” and had “gone rogue with its decision, violating the foundational American principle that no one is above the law.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The former president’s claim of total presidential immunity is an insult to the vision of our founders, who declared independence from a King,” Pelosi said \u003ca href=\"https://pelosi.house.gov/news/press-releases/pelosi-statement-supreme-court-decision-violating-foundational-american\">in a statement\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California Reps. Zoe Lofgren and Adam Schiff, who both served on the House Jan. 6 committee, sharply condemned the decision. Schiff said the decision was “far worse than anything I imagined.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It would be difficult to overstate how much this opinion shifts the balance of power away from Congress and towards the presidency and how unshackled a corrupt president will now be,” Schiff said \u003ca href=\"https://schiff.house.gov/news/press-releases/statement-rep-schiff-slams-scotus-ruling-on-trumps-claims-of-presidential-immunity\">in a statement\u003c/a>. “The Court gives the president absolute power, and it will corrupt him, absolutely.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a Monday appearance on MSNBC, Lofgren noted that in last week’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11992512/the-aftermath-of-the-trump-biden-debate\">debate with President Biden\u003c/a>, Trump “would not commit to accepting the election results this November unless he won.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So we’ve got a problem here if he cannot be accountable if any president cannot be held accountable under the laws that exist,” she said. “That’s a complete departure from our history.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sen. Alex Padilla said \u003ca href=\"https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-statement-on-supreme-court-decision-granting-trump-partial-immunity-from-criminal-prosecution/\">in a statement\u003c/a> that the court “afforded future presidents carte blanche to abuse the powers of their office for political and personal gain and laid the foundation for Donald Trump to have absolute authority in a potential second term.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He cast the blame on Trump’s “handpicked justices,” a sentiment echoed by Rep. Anna Eshoo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t have an activist court; we have an extreme court,” Eshoo told KQED. “To read Justice Sotomayor’s dissent was enough to make any decent American weep. This Fourth of July will, I think, be the saddest of my life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Notably, Rep. Eric Swalwell said special counsel Jack Smith will make the argument in the election interference case that Trump’s conduct on Jan. 6 didn’t represent “official acts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is not a Trump victory,” he \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/RepSwalwell/status/1807808244263579789\">posted on X\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On this, he seemingly stands alone from his colleagues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/csmith\">Caroline Smith\u003c/a> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Newsom Offers Progressive Values as 'Antidote' to 'Poisonous Populism of the Right' in State of the State Address",
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"content": "\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom used his State of the State address on Tuesday to boost President Joe Biden ahead of Thursday’s \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/debate-trump-biden-what-to-watch-366ccaf83068a3c64e262bcca945d6ae\">pivotal presidential debate\u003c/a>, comparing Donald Trump’s version of the Republican Party to the rise of fascism prior to World War II and offering Democrats’ ideals as “an antidote to the poisonous populism of the right.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nowhere in Newsom’s speech — which was prerecorded and \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xN-kDXdnno\">posted online\u003c/a> to his social media channels in a departure from decades of tradition — did he mention Trump or Biden by name. But he used some of Trump’s most incendiary statements to offer a dark contrast of the choice facing Americans in November, comparing it to the eve of World War II when “fascism spread its hate and destruction throughout Europe.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When they speak of immigrants poisoning American blood and of mass deportations and detention camps, this is the language of destruction — of 1939,” Newsom said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trump made those comments about immigrants “poisoning the blood of our country” during a campaign rally in Iowa last year, later \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/trump-hitler-poison-blood-history-f8c3ff512edd120252596a4743324352\">saying he did not know\u003c/a> that Adolf Hitler had once said something similar. Still, the comments have become a key talking point for the left as they paint Trump’s candidacy as a warning for a dark future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The political tone of Newsom’s speech was not surprising given his role as one of the Biden campaign’s top surrogates, which has made him a target of Republicans who have repeatedly held up California as an example of Democrats’ mismanagement. They have pointed to the state’s $46.8 billion budget deficit, high tax rates, large homeless population and the proliferation of property crimes in its largest cities — acts which have been captured in viral social media clips.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of Newsom’s speech was devoted to pushing back against that narrative, referring to “delusional California bashers” whose “success depends on our failure.” He noted California’s violent crime rate is about half of what it was at its peak in 1992. He said property crime in San Francisco has fallen, as has the overall crime rate across the bay in Oakland — where Newsom recently deployed 120 California Highway Patrol officers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s because, in California, we take public safety seriously — a problem to solve, not just to flog on cable news,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On homelessness, Newsom pointed to the more active role the state has taken under his administration, including spending billions of dollars to create programs that provided 15,300 units of housing and provided shelter for more than 71,000 people. However, a \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/california-homeless-audit-spending-8c8c8ce6cd9fc6840e180a99fccff588\">state audit\u003c/a> released earlier this year chided his administration for not tracking how effective the state’s homelessness spending — more than $24 billion over five years — has been.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom defended his decision to sign a law \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/california-homeless-audit-spending-8c8c8ce6cd9fc6840e180a99fccff588\">raising the minimum wage\u003c/a> for fast food workers to $20 an hour, a raise businesses have blamed for increasing customer costs. He also boasted about California’s economy, which, were it an independent country, would rank as the fifth largest in the world—saying California has added 63,000 new millionaires since 2019.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Here is a simple question for Republicans: If California is a failed state, why are four of the seven most valuable companies in the world based here?” he said, referring to Apple, \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/nvidia-chip-ai-apple-microsoft-51cc2b56e5871111907de6ad9cab59ae\">Nvidia\u003c/a>, and the parent companies of Google and Facebook. “The best minds in the world call California home because they’re liberated from the constraints of conformity and tradition. This is true freedom — to invent and make the world a better place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"forum_2010101906125,news_11983845,news_11989427\"]Newsom chose to deliver a speech for the smartphone era, opting to upload a prerecorded video across his social media channels instead of giving a formal speech before a packed house of state lawmakers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Democratic governor, now in his second term, has never been a big fan of formal speeches, given the \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-health-business-gavin-newsom-childrens-books-9756e47fc0a193a7fed729753be41ca6\">difficulty his dyslexia\u003c/a> gives him while reading from a teleprompter in live time. Last year, Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/california-governor-newsom-state-of-state-17c6461bf8b241e75b85fcd2966adb1d\">skipped the speech entirely\u003c/a>, instead embarking on a statewide tour to announce a series of major policy proposals in a more informal setting that allowed for questions from reporters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While this prerecorded speech fulfills the governor’s legal mandate, it does not in any real way fulfill his responsibility to Californians who deserve a safe, affordable and opportunity-filled future,” California Republican state Sen. Kelly Seyarto said. “California remains the country’s homeless capital, businesses are closing their doors, and crime continues to rise. The state of this state is simply not good under Newsom’s leadership and any claims to the contrary he makes in his speech will be patently false.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s Constitution requires the governor to update the Legislature every year “on the condition of the state.” Prior to World War II, California governors would do this by sending a letter to the Legislature. That changed with Gov. Earl Warren — the future chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court — who decided to give a formal speech to the Legislature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom used his State of the State address on Tuesday to boost President Joe Biden ahead of Thursday’s \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/debate-trump-biden-what-to-watch-366ccaf83068a3c64e262bcca945d6ae\">pivotal presidential debate\u003c/a>, comparing Donald Trump’s version of the Republican Party to the rise of fascism prior to World War II and offering Democrats’ ideals as “an antidote to the poisonous populism of the right.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nowhere in Newsom’s speech — which was prerecorded and \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xN-kDXdnno\">posted online\u003c/a> to his social media channels in a departure from decades of tradition — did he mention Trump or Biden by name. But he used some of Trump’s most incendiary statements to offer a dark contrast of the choice facing Americans in November, comparing it to the eve of World War II when “fascism spread its hate and destruction throughout Europe.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When they speak of immigrants poisoning American blood and of mass deportations and detention camps, this is the language of destruction — of 1939,” Newsom said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trump made those comments about immigrants “poisoning the blood of our country” during a campaign rally in Iowa last year, later \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/trump-hitler-poison-blood-history-f8c3ff512edd120252596a4743324352\">saying he did not know\u003c/a> that Adolf Hitler had once said something similar. Still, the comments have become a key talking point for the left as they paint Trump’s candidacy as a warning for a dark future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The political tone of Newsom’s speech was not surprising given his role as one of the Biden campaign’s top surrogates, which has made him a target of Republicans who have repeatedly held up California as an example of Democrats’ mismanagement. They have pointed to the state’s $46.8 billion budget deficit, high tax rates, large homeless population and the proliferation of property crimes in its largest cities — acts which have been captured in viral social media clips.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of Newsom’s speech was devoted to pushing back against that narrative, referring to “delusional California bashers” whose “success depends on our failure.” He noted California’s violent crime rate is about half of what it was at its peak in 1992. He said property crime in San Francisco has fallen, as has the overall crime rate across the bay in Oakland — where Newsom recently deployed 120 California Highway Patrol officers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s because, in California, we take public safety seriously — a problem to solve, not just to flog on cable news,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On homelessness, Newsom pointed to the more active role the state has taken under his administration, including spending billions of dollars to create programs that provided 15,300 units of housing and provided shelter for more than 71,000 people. However, a \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/california-homeless-audit-spending-8c8c8ce6cd9fc6840e180a99fccff588\">state audit\u003c/a> released earlier this year chided his administration for not tracking how effective the state’s homelessness spending — more than $24 billion over five years — has been.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom defended his decision to sign a law \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/california-homeless-audit-spending-8c8c8ce6cd9fc6840e180a99fccff588\">raising the minimum wage\u003c/a> for fast food workers to $20 an hour, a raise businesses have blamed for increasing customer costs. He also boasted about California’s economy, which, were it an independent country, would rank as the fifth largest in the world—saying California has added 63,000 new millionaires since 2019.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Here is a simple question for Republicans: If California is a failed state, why are four of the seven most valuable companies in the world based here?” he said, referring to Apple, \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/nvidia-chip-ai-apple-microsoft-51cc2b56e5871111907de6ad9cab59ae\">Nvidia\u003c/a>, and the parent companies of Google and Facebook. “The best minds in the world call California home because they’re liberated from the constraints of conformity and tradition. This is true freedom — to invent and make the world a better place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Newsom chose to deliver a speech for the smartphone era, opting to upload a prerecorded video across his social media channels instead of giving a formal speech before a packed house of state lawmakers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Democratic governor, now in his second term, has never been a big fan of formal speeches, given the \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-health-business-gavin-newsom-childrens-books-9756e47fc0a193a7fed729753be41ca6\">difficulty his dyslexia\u003c/a> gives him while reading from a teleprompter in live time. Last year, Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/california-governor-newsom-state-of-state-17c6461bf8b241e75b85fcd2966adb1d\">skipped the speech entirely\u003c/a>, instead embarking on a statewide tour to announce a series of major policy proposals in a more informal setting that allowed for questions from reporters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While this prerecorded speech fulfills the governor’s legal mandate, it does not in any real way fulfill his responsibility to Californians who deserve a safe, affordable and opportunity-filled future,” California Republican state Sen. Kelly Seyarto said. “California remains the country’s homeless capital, businesses are closing their doors, and crime continues to rise. The state of this state is simply not good under Newsom’s leadership and any claims to the contrary he makes in his speech will be patently false.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s Constitution requires the governor to update the Legislature every year “on the condition of the state.” Prior to World War II, California governors would do this by sending a letter to the Legislature. That changed with Gov. Earl Warren — the future chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court — who decided to give a formal speech to the Legislature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>After legislative leaders failed to reach an agreement with Gov. Gavin Newsom about how to close California’s projected multibillion-dollar deficit, the Legislature passed a placeholder state budget on Thursday, just ahead of a mandatory deadline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With only a few weeks left until the start of the new fiscal year on July 1, both sides refuse to publicly discuss what specific issues are holding up a deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom’s office and his Department of Finance declined to answer questions about the remaining differences with the Legislature that still need to be worked out. Representatives for Senate President Pro Tem \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/legislators/mike-mcguire-93\">Mike McGuire\u003c/a> and Assembly Speaker \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/legislators/robert-rivas-165041\">Robert Rivas\u003c/a>, who are in charge of negotiating with the governor, would not make them available to the media on Thursday after their members approved a spending plan that almost certainly will not be the actual budget.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a shared set of priorities,” Assemblymember \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/legislators/jesse-gabriel-160858\">Jesse Gabriel\u003c/a>, an Encino Democrat who leads the Assembly budget committee, told reporters following the vote. “It’s more about what are the most effective solutions, what are the programs and services that we think are the best way to go forward versus others.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His counterpart on the Senate budget committee — Sen. \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/legislators/scott-wiener-100936\">Scott Wiener\u003c/a>, a San Francisco Democrat — did not respond to an interview request.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2024/05/california-budget-deficit-newsom-may-proposal/\">presented a plan last month\u003c/a> to address what his administration estimates is a remaining funding shortfall of $56 billion over the next two years, including dipping into reserve accounts, deferring school funding, eliminating government jobs and cutting or delaying money for infrastructure, health and climate programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11990469\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11990469\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/041124-Rivas-Budget-AP-CM-01-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1045\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/041124-Rivas-Budget-AP-CM-01-copy.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/041124-Rivas-Budget-AP-CM-01-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/041124-Rivas-Budget-AP-CM-01-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/041124-Rivas-Budget-AP-CM-01-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/041124-Rivas-Budget-AP-CM-01-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas talks to reporters at the Capitol in Sacramento on April 11, 2024, after the Assembly approved a measure to reduce the state budget deficit. \u003ccite>(Rich Pedroncelli/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Democratic leaders in the Legislature, where the party holds supermajorities in both houses, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/capitol/2024/05/california-budget-deficit-legislature-democrats/\">released a counterproposal a few weeks later\u003c/a>. Among the major discrepancies is a push for more substantial \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/justice/2024/05/californa-prison-closures-deficit/\">reductions to prison funding\u003c/a> to reverse some of Newsom’s proposed cuts to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2024/05/california-financial-aid-2/\">college scholarships for middle-income students\u003c/a>, public health programs, subsidized child care slots and \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2024/05/may-revise-2024-homeless-housing/\">housing development\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The governor and the Legislature must also decide whether to repurpose billions of dollars that were \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/health/2024/05/medi-cal-health-care-budget/\">earmarked to increase payments\u003c/a> for health care providers who treat lower-income patients, as Newsom has suggested, and whether to further delay \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/health/2024/05/minimum-wage-health-care-deadline/\">minimum wage increases for health care workers\u003c/a>, which could potentially save the state billions of dollars but faces strong opposition from unions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gabriel defended the process as “exceptionally transparent,” pointing to dozens of legislative budget hearings in which he said “there’s been a very public vetting of these issues” and “opportunities for Californians to weigh in.” He said he did not think any of the final solutions would come as a surprise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"news_11985798,news_11986893,news_11989857\"]“I think Californians have a good understanding of what the major issues are that are at stake in this process,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite ongoing negotiations over undisclosed provisions, Democratic lawmakers voted on Thursday to adopt their version of the spending plan because they must pass a balanced budget by midnight on Saturday in order to get paid. The bill passed by a vote of 29–8 in the Senate and 59–14 in the Assembly, along largely partisan lines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Republicans criticized the proposal as out of touch with Californians’ needs. They raised objections to provisions pausing some tax deductions for businesses to raise additional revenue and reversing previous commitments on expanded health care spending. Several members called out the inclusion of billions of dollars for the \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2023/03/california-high-speed-rail/\">state’s troubled high-speed rail project\u003c/a> and to expand \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/health/2023/12/undocumented-health-insurance-new-california-laws-2024/\">health care access for undocumented immigrants\u003c/a> while other programs are cut.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a shameful budget,” Assemblymember \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/legislators/kate-sanchez-165419\">Kate Sanchez\u003c/a>, a Rancho Santa Margarita Republican, said during floor debate. “This budget is heartless, it’s divisive and it’s completely detached from the reality and the struggles that Californians are actually facing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The Legislature passes a placeholder state budget, but must still negotiate with Gov. Newsom on the final deal. How the state spends taxpayer money is largely being decided out of public view.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>After legislative leaders failed to reach an agreement with Gov. Gavin Newsom about how to close California’s projected multibillion-dollar deficit, the Legislature passed a placeholder state budget on Thursday, just ahead of a mandatory deadline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With only a few weeks left until the start of the new fiscal year on July 1, both sides refuse to publicly discuss what specific issues are holding up a deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom’s office and his Department of Finance declined to answer questions about the remaining differences with the Legislature that still need to be worked out. Representatives for Senate President Pro Tem \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/legislators/mike-mcguire-93\">Mike McGuire\u003c/a> and Assembly Speaker \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/legislators/robert-rivas-165041\">Robert Rivas\u003c/a>, who are in charge of negotiating with the governor, would not make them available to the media on Thursday after their members approved a spending plan that almost certainly will not be the actual budget.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a shared set of priorities,” Assemblymember \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/legislators/jesse-gabriel-160858\">Jesse Gabriel\u003c/a>, an Encino Democrat who leads the Assembly budget committee, told reporters following the vote. “It’s more about what are the most effective solutions, what are the programs and services that we think are the best way to go forward versus others.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His counterpart on the Senate budget committee — Sen. \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/legislators/scott-wiener-100936\">Scott Wiener\u003c/a>, a San Francisco Democrat — did not respond to an interview request.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2024/05/california-budget-deficit-newsom-may-proposal/\">presented a plan last month\u003c/a> to address what his administration estimates is a remaining funding shortfall of $56 billion over the next two years, including dipping into reserve accounts, deferring school funding, eliminating government jobs and cutting or delaying money for infrastructure, health and climate programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11990469\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11990469\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/041124-Rivas-Budget-AP-CM-01-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1045\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/041124-Rivas-Budget-AP-CM-01-copy.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/041124-Rivas-Budget-AP-CM-01-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/041124-Rivas-Budget-AP-CM-01-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/041124-Rivas-Budget-AP-CM-01-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/041124-Rivas-Budget-AP-CM-01-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas talks to reporters at the Capitol in Sacramento on April 11, 2024, after the Assembly approved a measure to reduce the state budget deficit. \u003ccite>(Rich Pedroncelli/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Democratic leaders in the Legislature, where the party holds supermajorities in both houses, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/capitol/2024/05/california-budget-deficit-legislature-democrats/\">released a counterproposal a few weeks later\u003c/a>. Among the major discrepancies is a push for more substantial \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/justice/2024/05/californa-prison-closures-deficit/\">reductions to prison funding\u003c/a> to reverse some of Newsom’s proposed cuts to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2024/05/california-financial-aid-2/\">college scholarships for middle-income students\u003c/a>, public health programs, subsidized child care slots and \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2024/05/may-revise-2024-homeless-housing/\">housing development\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The governor and the Legislature must also decide whether to repurpose billions of dollars that were \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/health/2024/05/medi-cal-health-care-budget/\">earmarked to increase payments\u003c/a> for health care providers who treat lower-income patients, as Newsom has suggested, and whether to further delay \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/health/2024/05/minimum-wage-health-care-deadline/\">minimum wage increases for health care workers\u003c/a>, which could potentially save the state billions of dollars but faces strong opposition from unions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gabriel defended the process as “exceptionally transparent,” pointing to dozens of legislative budget hearings in which he said “there’s been a very public vetting of these issues” and “opportunities for Californians to weigh in.” He said he did not think any of the final solutions would come as a surprise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“I think Californians have a good understanding of what the major issues are that are at stake in this process,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite ongoing negotiations over undisclosed provisions, Democratic lawmakers voted on Thursday to adopt their version of the spending plan because they must pass a balanced budget by midnight on Saturday in order to get paid. The bill passed by a vote of 29–8 in the Senate and 59–14 in the Assembly, along largely partisan lines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Republicans criticized the proposal as out of touch with Californians’ needs. They raised objections to provisions pausing some tax deductions for businesses to raise additional revenue and reversing previous commitments on expanded health care spending. Several members called out the inclusion of billions of dollars for the \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2023/03/california-high-speed-rail/\">state’s troubled high-speed rail project\u003c/a> and to expand \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/health/2023/12/undocumented-health-insurance-new-california-laws-2024/\">health care access for undocumented immigrants\u003c/a> while other programs are cut.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a shameful budget,” Assemblymember \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/legislators/kate-sanchez-165419\">Kate Sanchez\u003c/a>, a Rancho Santa Margarita Republican, said during floor debate. “This budget is heartless, it’s divisive and it’s completely detached from the reality and the struggles that Californians are actually facing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "california-democrats-divided-over-increasing-penalties-for-assaulting-er-workers",
"title": "California Democrats Divided Over Increasing Penalties for Assaulting ER Workers",
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"content": "\u003cp>Before becoming a member of the California Assembly, \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/legislators/freddie-rodriguez-69\">Freddie Rodriguez\u003c/a> spent 30 years as an emergency medical technician in the San Gabriel Valley. He’s wheeled untold numbers of patients on gurneys into hospital emergency departments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And he’s seen all too often what happens when one of them tries to hurt caregivers. In fact, it recently happened to his daughter, Desirae, a respiratory technician. He told the Senate Public Safety Committee on Tuesday that she was recently assaulted on the job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This violence is unacceptable,” Rodriguez testified. “But for many of the health care heroes, they view workplace violence as just part of the job.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The issue prompted Rodriguez to introduce \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/bills/ca_202320240ab977\">Assembly Bill 977\u003c/a>, which would increase penalties to a year in jail for those convicted of assaulting California’s hospital emergency room doctors, nurses and other workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the bill has an uncertain future due to resistance from progressive Democrats who, for the past decade, have sought to shrink the number of inmates in the state’s crowded jails and prisons. Indeed, former Gov. Jerry Brown, who faced a U.S. Supreme Court order to shrink the state’s prison population, vetoed an identical bill from Rodriguez \u003ca href=\"http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/15-16/bill/asm/ab_0151-0200/ab_172_vt_20151010.html\">in 2015\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those tensions were displayed when the bill narrowly passed the Senate Public Safety Committee earlier this week.[aside postID=news_11987204 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240521-SFGeneral-01-BL-1020x680.jpg']The safety committee’s liberal Democratic senators from the San Francisco Bay Area, \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/legislators/scott-wiener-100936\">Scott Wiener\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/legislators/nancy-skinner-34364\">Nancy Skinner\u003c/a>, opposed the legislation. They sided with the \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/organizations/-2775\">California Public Defenders Association\u003c/a> and prison reform advocates who argue that increasing criminal penalties doesn’t deter crime and who say laws on the books already prohibit assault.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If there were evidence that an additional six months in county jail … would enhance the safety of these workers or serve as a deterrent, I would sign this bill,” Brown wrote. “I doubt that it would do either.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At this week’s hearing, the bill’s opponents also argued that many of the attacks in emergency departments are from patients having mental health crises.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We realize now that because of the lack of mental-health resources …ERs are where people who are having a crisis of mental health are brought,” Skinner said. “And punishments like this are not deterrents for people who can use no judgment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skinner, however, didn’t vote on the bill, which counts the same as voting “no.” When Rodriguez’s bill passed the Assembly earlier this year, 12 members — most of them progressive Democrats who’ve been leery of increasing criminal penalties — didn’t vote. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2024/05/california-shoplifting-bill-democrats-vote/\">As CalMatters has reported, \u003c/a>lawmakers regularly avoid voting on controversial bills to avoid angering colleagues or eliminating a record of their opposition on sensitive matters. There is no distinction for legislators who abstain or are absent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11989246\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11989246\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/CMERWorkers02.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/CMERWorkers02.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/CMERWorkers02-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/CMERWorkers02-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/CMERWorkers02-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/CMERWorkers02-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/CMERWorkers02-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Assemblymember Freddie Rodriguez addresses other lawmakers during a floor session at the state Capitol in Sacramento on April 4, 2024. \u003ccite>(Fred Greaves/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Wiener cast the lone “no” vote in the five-member committee. The influential \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/organizations/-19\">California Medical Association\u003c/a>, representing the state’s physicians, supported the bill. The opposition from Skinner and Wiener represented a significant break from the association’s positions on legislation. Skinner has historically sided with the doctors’ group 80% of the time; Wiener 86%, according to an analysis from \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/\">CalMatters Digital Democracy database\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Murrieta Republican Sen. \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/legislators/kelly-seyarto-165446\">Kelly Seyarto\u003c/a>, who has historically aligned with the California Medical Association only 45% of the time, was firmly on the doctors’ side this time around.\u003cbr>\nHe’s a former battalion chief with the Los Angeles County Fire Department, who has seen his share of violent medical calls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He told his committee colleagues that the legislation is “long overdue.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I know personally a nurse that was disabled [after] she was attacked and thrown to the ground,” Seyarto said. “She had a head injury, and she could never go back to work. She could never go back to work. And the person that did that, there was nothing mentally wrong with them. He was just mad.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "A bill that would increase penalties for those who assault hospital emergency department workers is facing the same pushback that other recent tough-on-crime legislation has from progressive Democrats leery of growing incarceration rates.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Before becoming a member of the California Assembly, \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/legislators/freddie-rodriguez-69\">Freddie Rodriguez\u003c/a> spent 30 years as an emergency medical technician in the San Gabriel Valley. He’s wheeled untold numbers of patients on gurneys into hospital emergency departments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And he’s seen all too often what happens when one of them tries to hurt caregivers. In fact, it recently happened to his daughter, Desirae, a respiratory technician. He told the Senate Public Safety Committee on Tuesday that she was recently assaulted on the job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This violence is unacceptable,” Rodriguez testified. “But for many of the health care heroes, they view workplace violence as just part of the job.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The issue prompted Rodriguez to introduce \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/bills/ca_202320240ab977\">Assembly Bill 977\u003c/a>, which would increase penalties to a year in jail for those convicted of assaulting California’s hospital emergency room doctors, nurses and other workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the bill has an uncertain future due to resistance from progressive Democrats who, for the past decade, have sought to shrink the number of inmates in the state’s crowded jails and prisons. Indeed, former Gov. Jerry Brown, who faced a U.S. Supreme Court order to shrink the state’s prison population, vetoed an identical bill from Rodriguez \u003ca href=\"http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/15-16/bill/asm/ab_0151-0200/ab_172_vt_20151010.html\">in 2015\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those tensions were displayed when the bill narrowly passed the Senate Public Safety Committee earlier this week.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The safety committee’s liberal Democratic senators from the San Francisco Bay Area, \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/legislators/scott-wiener-100936\">Scott Wiener\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/legislators/nancy-skinner-34364\">Nancy Skinner\u003c/a>, opposed the legislation. They sided with the \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/organizations/-2775\">California Public Defenders Association\u003c/a> and prison reform advocates who argue that increasing criminal penalties doesn’t deter crime and who say laws on the books already prohibit assault.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If there were evidence that an additional six months in county jail … would enhance the safety of these workers or serve as a deterrent, I would sign this bill,” Brown wrote. “I doubt that it would do either.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At this week’s hearing, the bill’s opponents also argued that many of the attacks in emergency departments are from patients having mental health crises.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We realize now that because of the lack of mental-health resources …ERs are where people who are having a crisis of mental health are brought,” Skinner said. “And punishments like this are not deterrents for people who can use no judgment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skinner, however, didn’t vote on the bill, which counts the same as voting “no.” When Rodriguez’s bill passed the Assembly earlier this year, 12 members — most of them progressive Democrats who’ve been leery of increasing criminal penalties — didn’t vote. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2024/05/california-shoplifting-bill-democrats-vote/\">As CalMatters has reported, \u003c/a>lawmakers regularly avoid voting on controversial bills to avoid angering colleagues or eliminating a record of their opposition on sensitive matters. There is no distinction for legislators who abstain or are absent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11989246\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11989246\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/CMERWorkers02.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/CMERWorkers02.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/CMERWorkers02-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/CMERWorkers02-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/CMERWorkers02-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/CMERWorkers02-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/CMERWorkers02-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Assemblymember Freddie Rodriguez addresses other lawmakers during a floor session at the state Capitol in Sacramento on April 4, 2024. \u003ccite>(Fred Greaves/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Wiener cast the lone “no” vote in the five-member committee. The influential \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/organizations/-19\">California Medical Association\u003c/a>, representing the state’s physicians, supported the bill. The opposition from Skinner and Wiener represented a significant break from the association’s positions on legislation. Skinner has historically sided with the doctors’ group 80% of the time; Wiener 86%, according to an analysis from \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/\">CalMatters Digital Democracy database\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Murrieta Republican Sen. \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/legislators/kelly-seyarto-165446\">Kelly Seyarto\u003c/a>, who has historically aligned with the California Medical Association only 45% of the time, was firmly on the doctors’ side this time around.\u003cbr>\nHe’s a former battalion chief with the Los Angeles County Fire Department, who has seen his share of violent medical calls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He told his committee colleagues that the legislation is “long overdue.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I know personally a nurse that was disabled [after] she was attacked and thrown to the ground,” Seyarto said. “She had a head injury, and she could never go back to work. She could never go back to work. And the person that did that, there was nothing mentally wrong with them. He was just mad.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The San Francisco Democratic Party put itself on record backing the building of unrestricted market-rate housing after a Friday night vote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new policy may push candidates running for mayor and the Board of Supervisors to modify their positions on housing if they want the backing of the Democratic County Central Committee or DCCC.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In most elections, the DCCC sends mailers to voters with its official stamp of approval for candidates, which can sway a segment of voters. The candidates appearing on party mailers this November will likely have pro-market rate housing views.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mike Chen, a member of the DCCC and co-author of its housing policy, told KQED he hopes candidates heed the party’s new direction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are many candidates who are still movable, who have issue priorities that are not necessarily housing,” Chen said. “This is a chance for candidates to take feedback from the party.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Catch up fast: \u003c/strong>Most of the two dozen moderate Democrats who ran for the DCCC won in the March primary, flipping the board from its previous progressive majority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new housing policy embraces the platform of San Francisco YIMBY, an advocacy group that said building market-rate developments as quickly as possible will help bring down rental prices. Progressive Democrats said market-rate construction is akin to luxury housing that most people can’t afford.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mayor London Breed is a vocal supporter of YIMBY policies. The DCCC’s new approach to housing may benefit her when she seeks the party’s endorsement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11983682\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11983682\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/1000019369-800x602.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"602\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/1000019369-800x602.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/1000019369-1020x768.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/1000019369-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/1000019369-1536x1157.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/1000019369-2048x1542.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/1000019369-1920x1446.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Democrats on the Democratic County Central Committee at their first meeting since the March primary on April 19. From left to right, Michael Lai, Cedric Akbar, Mike Chen, Lily Ho, Trevor Chandler, Matt Dorsey, Nancy Tung and Marjan Philhour. \u003ccite>(Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Who loses out: \u003c/strong>Some DCCC members may now think twice before backing the mayoral candidacy of Mark Farrell, a former mayor and supervisor. Farrell rankled pro-housing Democrats last month when he said he doesn’t believe San Francisco “needs to upzone every neighborhood” in an \u003ca href=\"https://missionlocal.org/2024/03/mark-farrells-common-sense/?utm_campaign=SF+Standard+Power+Play&utm_content=p-text&utm_medium=email&utm_source=SF+Standard\">interview with Joe Eskenazi\u003c/a>, Mission Local’s managing editor and columnist, on stage at Manny’s. Upzoning is the process cities use to grant taller housing to be built in an area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other mayoral candidates, like Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, who talks about protecting the character of neighborhoods from the construction of tall housing, and Supervisor Ahsha Safai, are unlikely to gain the party’s backing. Safaí lacks the allies on the board to gain an endorsement. It’s unclear if Daniel Lurie, a mayoral candidate and philanthropist, has enough DCCC allies for an endorsement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The opposing view: \u003c/strong>A few progressives remain on the party board, including Peter Gallotta, who successfully got the moderate Democrats to write clauses supporting renters into the new housing policy. “I think it’s important that we reiterate and underscore that our party is also pro-tenant,” Gallotta said. “I do think we need to make sure we’re calling out our support for the protection of rent control in San Francisco, that we support preservation of our existing rent-controlled housing stock.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What we’re watching: \u003c/strong>The meeting was the party’s first since moderates flipped the board. The moderates flexed their newfound power by pushing for several new policies. Besides the housing platform, board members voted to approve a resolution backing more police officers for public safety and new bylaws that limit the amount of public comment they’ll listen to in a meeting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The public safety and housing policies have no actual teeth in changing San Francisco’s operations.[aside postID=news_11983000 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/GettyImages-623874284_qut-1020x705.jpg']The moderate Democrats also voted in Nancy Tung as the new party chair. Tung is a career prosecutor in the San Francisco District Attorney’s office who ran for DA in 2019 but lost to Chesa Boudin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The party also passed a resolution backing the labor community. The policy statement angered Kim Tavaglione, the executive director of the San Francisco Labor Council, a powerful group that unites labor unions across the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tavaglione said the policy lacks basic elements in the state Democratic Party platform, like endorsing specific training language for the building trades, a living wage recommendation and anti-charter school statements that public school teachers back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If they don’t appreciate labor’s voice, we don’t have to play with them,” Tavaglione said. “We’re happy to walk away.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tavaglione said she would recommend labor unions withhold resources from the DCCC, which would help progressive Democrats in the November election.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Catch up fast: \u003c/strong>Most of the two dozen moderate Democrats who ran for the DCCC won in the March primary, flipping the board from its previous progressive majority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new housing policy embraces the platform of San Francisco YIMBY, an advocacy group that said building market-rate developments as quickly as possible will help bring down rental prices. Progressive Democrats said market-rate construction is akin to luxury housing that most people can’t afford.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mayor London Breed is a vocal supporter of YIMBY policies. The DCCC’s new approach to housing may benefit her when she seeks the party’s endorsement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11983682\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11983682\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/1000019369-800x602.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"602\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/1000019369-800x602.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/1000019369-1020x768.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/1000019369-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/1000019369-1536x1157.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/1000019369-2048x1542.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/1000019369-1920x1446.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Democrats on the Democratic County Central Committee at their first meeting since the March primary on April 19. From left to right, Michael Lai, Cedric Akbar, Mike Chen, Lily Ho, Trevor Chandler, Matt Dorsey, Nancy Tung and Marjan Philhour. \u003ccite>(Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Who loses out: \u003c/strong>Some DCCC members may now think twice before backing the mayoral candidacy of Mark Farrell, a former mayor and supervisor. Farrell rankled pro-housing Democrats last month when he said he doesn’t believe San Francisco “needs to upzone every neighborhood” in an \u003ca href=\"https://missionlocal.org/2024/03/mark-farrells-common-sense/?utm_campaign=SF+Standard+Power+Play&utm_content=p-text&utm_medium=email&utm_source=SF+Standard\">interview with Joe Eskenazi\u003c/a>, Mission Local’s managing editor and columnist, on stage at Manny’s. Upzoning is the process cities use to grant taller housing to be built in an area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other mayoral candidates, like Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, who talks about protecting the character of neighborhoods from the construction of tall housing, and Supervisor Ahsha Safai, are unlikely to gain the party’s backing. Safaí lacks the allies on the board to gain an endorsement. It’s unclear if Daniel Lurie, a mayoral candidate and philanthropist, has enough DCCC allies for an endorsement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The opposing view: \u003c/strong>A few progressives remain on the party board, including Peter Gallotta, who successfully got the moderate Democrats to write clauses supporting renters into the new housing policy. “I think it’s important that we reiterate and underscore that our party is also pro-tenant,” Gallotta said. “I do think we need to make sure we’re calling out our support for the protection of rent control in San Francisco, that we support preservation of our existing rent-controlled housing stock.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What we’re watching: \u003c/strong>The meeting was the party’s first since moderates flipped the board. The moderates flexed their newfound power by pushing for several new policies. Besides the housing platform, board members voted to approve a resolution backing more police officers for public safety and new bylaws that limit the amount of public comment they’ll listen to in a meeting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The public safety and housing policies have no actual teeth in changing San Francisco’s operations.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>U.S. Sen. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/dianne-feinstein\">Dianne Feinstein\u003c/a>, the oldest member of Congress, fell in her home and went to a hospital for a short time, her office said on Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 90-year-old California Democrat, who has faced mounting concerns about her health and her ability to perform the duties of a senator, “briefly went to the hospital yesterday afternoon as a precaution after a minor fall in her home,” her office said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of her scans were clear, and she returned home later Tuesday, said her spokesperson Adam Russell, who provided no further details.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The San Francisco hospital visit comes after Feinstein missed months of work in Washington earlier this year when she was hospitalized for the shingles virus and its side effects. Since her return to work in May, she has traveled the Capitol halls in a wheelchair and has often appeared confused and disoriented.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Feinstein has defended her ability to perform her job, though her office said in May that she was still experiencing vision and balance impairments from the shingles virus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Feinstein, who took office in 1992, announced earlier this year that she would not seek reelection in 2024. Several Democrats have already entered the race to replace her.[aside postID=news_11947049 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/gettyimages-1466083175_wide-597455cdb228dd4504539e7afc14537f6cbe971a-1020x574.jpg']During her hospitalization in the spring, some progressive House Democrats publicly called on her to resign, saying her absence had grounded the push to confirm President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees. However, leading Democrats, including Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, publicly stood beside her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nonetheless, Feinstein’s retirement plans have sparked a competitive Democratic contest to replace her, led by a trio of House lawmakers, U.S. Reps. Barbara Lee, Katie Porter and Adam Schiff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If Feinstein resigns before the 2024 election, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom would name her replacement, potentially reordering the race to succeed her. The governor said in 2021 that he would nominate a Black woman to fill the seat if Feinstein, who’s white, were to step aside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lee is Black, and becoming the incumbent could be a decisive advantage in the contest, but it’s unknown if Newsom would consider Lee, given that she is already running for the seat. Porter and Schiff are white.[aside label='More on California Politics' tag='california-politics']Feinstein has had a storied political career that broke gender barriers as she rose from San Francisco’s City Hall to leadership posts in the U.S. Senate. She played key roles in political battles over issues including reproductive rights and environmental protection, gaining a reputation as a pragmatic centrist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In recent years, however, she has taken a step back from senior roles at the Capitol. She relinquished the top Democratic spot on the Judiciary Committee in 2020 amid criticism from liberals on how she handled the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett. And earlier this year, she declined to serve as the Senate president pro tempore, the most senior member of the majority party who daily opens the Senate chamber, even though she was in line to do so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Feinstein had also requested to be replaced on the Senate Judiciary panel during her 10-week hospital stay earlier this year, but Republicans declined to allow the replacement. Even after she returned, concerns continued that she would not be able to make it for every crucial vote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Senate is expected to resume work in Washington in early September.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says he spoke with Feinstein after the California Democrat fell in her home and went to the hospital for a short time.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>U.S. Sen. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/dianne-feinstein\">Dianne Feinstein\u003c/a>, the oldest member of Congress, fell in her home and went to a hospital for a short time, her office said on Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 90-year-old California Democrat, who has faced mounting concerns about her health and her ability to perform the duties of a senator, “briefly went to the hospital yesterday afternoon as a precaution after a minor fall in her home,” her office said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of her scans were clear, and she returned home later Tuesday, said her spokesperson Adam Russell, who provided no further details.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The San Francisco hospital visit comes after Feinstein missed months of work in Washington earlier this year when she was hospitalized for the shingles virus and its side effects. Since her return to work in May, she has traveled the Capitol halls in a wheelchair and has often appeared confused and disoriented.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Feinstein has defended her ability to perform her job, though her office said in May that she was still experiencing vision and balance impairments from the shingles virus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Feinstein, who took office in 1992, announced earlier this year that she would not seek reelection in 2024. Several Democrats have already entered the race to replace her.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>During her hospitalization in the spring, some progressive House Democrats publicly called on her to resign, saying her absence had grounded the push to confirm President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees. However, leading Democrats, including Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, publicly stood beside her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nonetheless, Feinstein’s retirement plans have sparked a competitive Democratic contest to replace her, led by a trio of House lawmakers, U.S. Reps. Barbara Lee, Katie Porter and Adam Schiff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If Feinstein resigns before the 2024 election, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom would name her replacement, potentially reordering the race to succeed her. The governor said in 2021 that he would nominate a Black woman to fill the seat if Feinstein, who’s white, were to step aside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lee is Black, and becoming the incumbent could be a decisive advantage in the contest, but it’s unknown if Newsom would consider Lee, given that she is already running for the seat. Porter and Schiff are white.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Feinstein has had a storied political career that broke gender barriers as she rose from San Francisco’s City Hall to leadership posts in the U.S. Senate. She played key roles in political battles over issues including reproductive rights and environmental protection, gaining a reputation as a pragmatic centrist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In recent years, however, she has taken a step back from senior roles at the Capitol. She relinquished the top Democratic spot on the Judiciary Committee in 2020 amid criticism from liberals on how she handled the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett. And earlier this year, she declined to serve as the Senate president pro tempore, the most senior member of the majority party who daily opens the Senate chamber, even though she was in line to do so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Feinstein had also requested to be replaced on the Senate Judiciary panel during her 10-week hospital stay earlier this year, but Republicans declined to allow the replacement. Even after she returned, concerns continued that she would not be able to make it for every crucial vote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Senate is expected to resume work in Washington in early September.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "'Overlooked': How the Central Valley Became California's Most Fiercely Contested Political Turf",
"title": "'Overlooked': How the Central Valley Became California's Most Fiercely Contested Political Turf",
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"content": "\u003cp>On an already hot Saturday morning in east Bakersfield, state Assembly candidate Leticia Perez stands at the front of the electrical workers’ local union hall, working a crowd of fellow Democrats ready to knock on doors and talk to voters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the thrust of Perez’s message has bipartisan appeal. Bakersfield is not like the rest of California\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Many people outside this community think they know us. They don’t,” said Perez.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Indeed, voters are being told what to do in millions of dollars in TV ads produced by high-powered consultants from Sacramento and Washington, D.C. They’re being interviewed by national reporters parachuting in to take the pulse of a pivotal area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union hall is less than a mile from Buck Owens’ Crystal Palace, the iconic country and western bar that for many symbolizes the Dust Bowl origins of Bakersfield. But looking at the assembled volunteers, Perez describes a region and political moment that seem far removed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I see my Indian brothers and sisters in the back, and I see my Black familia here today. I see a few Latinos … I got a lot of my \u003ca href=\"https://www.abc10.com/article/entertainment/television/programs/backroads/home-of-the-okies-and-merle-haggard/103-0f251d5f-698a-4ea1-8022-a83eca03a476\">Okie\u003c/a> brothers and sisters here, too, in the house!” she said, as the applause grew. “That’s right! Kern County is what we say it is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whether that’s true is a question at the heart of three overlapping toss-up elections on November 8 that make this stretch of the southern Central Valley — nearly the size of Connecticut — among the most competitive pieces of political turf in America.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s the \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-voter-guide-2022/us-house/house-races/#hot-district-22\">congressional race\u003c/a> between Republican U.S. Rep. David Valadao and Democratic \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/legislator-tracker/rudy-salas-1977/\">Assemblymember Rudy Salas\u003c/a>, now the second-most expensive House contest in the country and one that \u003ca href=\"https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/analyzing-key-midterm-races-that-could-decide-control-of-the-house\">could help determine which party controls the next Congress\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s the contest between \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/legislator-tracker/melissa-hurtado-1988/\">state Sen. Melissa Hurtado\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-voter-guide-2022/state-senate/senate-races/#hot-district-16\">widely considered to be the most endangered Democratic incumbent\u003c/a> in the Legislature, and political\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>newcomer David Shepard, the Republican scion of a Tulare County farming family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11929774\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11929774\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/101922_Bakersfield_Election_LV_CM_09-copy.jpg\" alt='A young Latina woman looks on with a poster behind her that says \"David Valadao for Congress\"' width=\"1568\" height=\"1045\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/101922_Bakersfield_Election_LV_CM_09-copy.jpg 1568w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/101922_Bakersfield_Election_LV_CM_09-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/101922_Bakersfield_Election_LV_CM_09-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/101922_Bakersfield_Election_LV_CM_09-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/101922_Bakersfield_Election_LV_CM_09-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A volunteer sits at the Republican National Committee office in Bakersfield during a training for door-to-door canvassing on Oct. 14, 2022. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela/CalMatters-CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And there’s the \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-voter-guide-2022/state-assembly/assembly-races/#hot-district-35\">face-off for the local Assembly seat\u003c/a> between \u003ca href=\"https://www.leticiaperez.org/\">Perez\u003c/a> and fellow Democrat \u003ca href=\"https://www.drjasmeetbains.com/\">Jasmeet Bains\u003c/a>, who have attracted the financial backing of the \u003ca href=\"https://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Campaign/Committees/Detail.aspx?id=1454778\">oil industry\u003c/a> and the \u003ca href=\"https://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Campaign/Committees/Detail.aspx?id=1447991&view=received\">state doctors lobby\u003c/a>, respectively.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The outcome of all three races will be determined by voters in east Bakersfield, historically the city’s poorer, Latino, less politically powerful side, as well as voters in the agricultural towns that dot the road north to Fresno: Shafter, Delano, McFarland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The stakes are high. Kern County has California’s \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/justice/2021/12/kern-county-homicide-rate-gangs/\">highest homicide rate\u003c/a>. It is often blanketed with \u003ca href=\"https://www.lung.org/research/sota/city-rankings/states/california/kern\">noxious air\u003c/a>. The share of the \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/justice/2022/08/california-incarceration-rates-rural/\">population behind bars\u003c/a> is among the highest in the state and its \u003ca href=\"https://www.countyhealthrankings.org/app/california/2022/rankings/kern/county/outcomes/overall/snapshot\">public health numbers\u003c/a> are among the lowest. Choosing effective representatives in Sacramento and Washington, D.C., is essential.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The irony of this sudden surge of outside attention on an area so often overshadowed and beset by so many problems is not lost on some residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel as if there are two perceptions of California: It’s either Northern California or Southern California,” said Manpreet Kaur, a 29-year-old Democrat running for Bakersfield City Council. “This entire Central Valley region tends to be overlooked. But this is where I think you find the hardest-working people with grit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Republicans and Democrats alike repeat the line that Kern County — the center of the state’s agricultural and oil industries — feeds and fuels California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And yet we’re treated like a stepchild,” said Republican consultant Cathy Abernathy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s also a place that defies the expectations and political rules of thumb that govern elections across the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This area has sent Valadao to Congress six times despite \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-voter-guide-2022/us-house/house-races/#hot-district-22\">Democrats outnumbering Republicans by double digits\u003c/a>. While\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>the electorate is overwhelmingly Latino, they’re not \u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/publication/californias-political-geography/\">necessarily like the liberal-leaning Latino voters\u003c/a> on the coast.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Manpreet Kaur, Democratic candidate for Bakersfield City Council\"]'I feel as if there are two perceptions of California: It's either Northern California or Southern California. This entire Central Valley region tends to be overlooked. But this is where I think you find the hardest-working people with grit.'[/pullquote]There’s “the myth that there is going to be change because of the demographic numbers — that demographics is destiny. That’s not necessarily the case,” said Ivy Cargile, political science professor at California State University, Bakersfield.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And partisan labels don’t determine where a candidate stands on issues as much as they do elsewhere in the state. Valadao was one of just 10 Republicans to vote to impeach former President Donald Trump. Salas and Hurtado regularly irk the Democratic Party’s liberal base. The Central Valley is home to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/publication/californias-political-geography/\">highest number of conservative Democrats in the state\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That may be an oxymoron in much of California, but at the union hall, Perez embraces the description. “We like to say we have a purple center. We’re merging and changing and evolving,” she said. “We’re a melting pot.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The 'Publishers Clearing House guy'\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Knocking on doors in a subdivision on the southern outskirts of Bakersfield last Saturday, Salas seems to enjoy the personal touch of campaigning — even if the going is a little slower than the average volunteer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because voters who recognize him will invite him in for a beer, some barbeque or pan dulce, and he always accepts, he said. Earlier this month, however, he \u003ca href=\"https://gvwire.com/2022/10/12/with-eyes-of-nation-watching-salas-ducks-out-of-tv-debate-vs-valadao/\">reneged on an invitation to a televised debate\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nationally, election messaging has taken on a rote consistency: Democrats accuse Republicans of wanting to end the right to an abortion. Republicans blame Democrats for persistent inflation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While those arguments are familiar to Bakersfield voters, Salas says his congressional race is going to be won or lost on personal connections in this close-knit community — that, and who has delivered the most to the district while in office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s about putting food on the table. It’s about providing opportunities for their kids and for themselves,” he said. “I’m kind of like that Publishers Clearing House guy. I keep bringing taxpayers' money back into the district.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Salas is exaggerating, but only a little. This month, he has delivered oversized checks to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jq99NrR9Bu8\">hospital\u003c/a>, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Biy6m1pKrGQ\">community college\u003c/a> and a \u003ca href=\"https://www.bakersfield.com/news/salas-announces-500k-for-shepower-leadership-academy/article_cadc502e-44f6-11ed-96d7-d70379bbe2a0.html\">local nonprofit\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Apparently that’s a tried-and-true political tactic. The day before Salas went canvassing, Hurtado celebrated new funding she helped secure to repair the Friant-Kern Canal. On prominent display: a supersized check for $100 million with Hurtado’s signature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Salas and Hurtado aren’t the only ones showering the area in cash this election.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11929776\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11929776\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/101922_Bakersfield_Election_LV_CM_03-copy.jpg\" alt='A Latina woman speaks under a fold-up tent that has \"Melissa Hurtado, Senator, 14th District\" written on it.' width=\"1568\" height=\"1045\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/101922_Bakersfield_Election_LV_CM_03-copy.jpg 1568w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/101922_Bakersfield_Election_LV_CM_03-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/101922_Bakersfield_Election_LV_CM_03-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/101922_Bakersfield_Election_LV_CM_03-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/101922_Bakersfield_Election_LV_CM_03-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">State Sen. Melissa Hurtado speaks at a press conference where she presented a $100 million check to repair the Friant-Kern Canal near Terra Bella on Oct. 14, 2022. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela/CalMatters-CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At $14.5 million and counting, the 22nd District is the second largest money magnet for outside political spending of any House race in the country. Salas has raised $2.2 million, while Valadao has brought in $3.2 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Valadao has survived most prior Democratic challenges (he lost the seat in 2018, but returned two years later) by relying on white conservatives turning out in higher numbers than \u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/publication/race-and-voting-in-california/\">Democratic-leaning Latinos\u003c/a> and by carving out a moderate reputation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the state’s redistricting shaved off the conservative north end of the district, Valadao’s home turf, and added more of Kern County, which is more Latino and Democratic — and less familiar with him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If Salas wins, he would be the first Latino member of Congress in the Central Valley, despite \u003ca href=\"https://www.fresnobee.com/vida-en-el-valle/opinion-es/article253547814.html\">six Valley counties\u003c/a> having a Latino majority. Nearly 60% of the congressional district’s voters are Latino.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Valadao, through his spokesperson, declined to be interviewed for this story. But the national GOP establishment — at least those portions at peace with his impeachment vote — are riding to his rescue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this week, former Vice President \u003ca href=\"https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/local-news/former-vp-mike-pence-in-fresno-for-valadao-campaign/\">Mike Pence showed up in Fresno\u003c/a> to make a pitch for Valadao.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In July, the Republican National Committee opened a Hispanic Community Center in a south Bakersfield strip mall as part of a nationwide effort to capitalize on \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/14/politics/latino-voters-texas-15th/index.html\">Democratic weakness in Latino-majority districts in Texas and Florida\u003c/a> in the 2020 election. But it’s also an acknowledgement that Valadao won’t win unless he can appeal directly to the district’s majority.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A demographic and political shift\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>On a Friday evening, roughly two dozen elected officials and other community leaders gathered in McFarland, a town 25 miles north of Bakersfield, to talk about crime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Four days earlier, \u003ca href=\"https://abc30.com/delano-drive-by-shooting-one-man-killed-two-victims-airlifted/12312949/\">two people were killed\u003c/a> in a drive-by shooting in nearby Delano. Rumors about an impending gang war rippled through the community. Parents kept their kids out of school, and the school district canceled a much-anticipated high school homecoming football game.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The meeting was organized by Assembly candidate Bains, a family doctor backed by the California Medical Association. She says she opted to run against a well-established politician, even as she continues to see patients, to try to address crime and other issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What prescription can I write that’s going to clear the bad air quality that my community sees? What prescription can I write that’s going to increase access to quality water? What prescription can I write to address domestic abuse?” she said. “I can treat the patient in my clinic, but what can I do once they leave my clinic?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While not a campaign event, the meeting did highlight a few of Bains’ selling points. One is her appeal to bipartisanship. Perez has the support of the Kern County Democratic Party, whose chairperson is Perez’s campaign manager. Bains, independent of the party establishment, may be the more likely option for GOP-leaning voters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>David Couch, a Kern County supervisor and registered Republican, is among them. “Hey, Jasmeet, have I formally endorsed you?” he asked Bains after the meeting. “I can be for or against you, whatever helps you the most.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The contest between Bains and Perez, however, is about more than competing Democratic factions. It also reflects an inflection point as the region’s political representation begins to catch up with the growing ethnic diversity of its population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2013, Perez became the first Latina ever elected to the Board of Supervisors in Kern County, which is 56% Latino. And if Bains is elected, she would be the first Sikh and the first South Asian woman to serve in the Legislature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11929778\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11929778\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/101922_Bakersfield_Election_LV_CM_21-copy.jpg\" alt=\"a white man sites to the right of an Indian woman with another woman sitting to the left as they sit behind a table and listen to a man speak.\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1045\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/101922_Bakersfield_Election_LV_CM_21-copy.jpg 1568w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/101922_Bakersfield_Election_LV_CM_21-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/101922_Bakersfield_Election_LV_CM_21-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/101922_Bakersfield_Election_LV_CM_21-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/101922_Bakersfield_Election_LV_CM_21-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">State Assembly candidate Jasmeet Bains hosts a roundtable with local leaders in the town of McFarland after an uptick in gang-related violence in the community on Oct. 14, 2022. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela/CalMatters-CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The changing leadership is also one of politics. Bakersfield, where the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/11/us/california-housing-bakersfield.html\">population grew faster than that of any of the state’s most populous cities in 2020\u003c/a>, underwent a historic redistricting this year — one that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kget.com/news/local-news/final-public-hearing-regarding-ward-redistricting/\">created three new Latino-majority city council districts and united the city’s Sikh and Punjabi\u003c/a> populations in one of them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaur, the city council candidate, was part of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.turnto23.com/news/local-news/punjabi-community-and-other-community-members-celebrate-new-approved-redistricting-map\">local redistricting effort\u003c/a> that she hopes will bolster her community’s electoral voice: “It’s so important to keep our community together, because we’ve literally been divided.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If she wins, she would be the first member of the city’s sizable Punjabi population to serve on the council, and she would give Democrats a majority on the body for the first time in recent memory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Bakersfield’s Punjabi population is not the only one on the political ascent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city’s Latino population has been growing since the early 1980s, when efforts to recruit low-wage labor launched an ongoing wave of immigration. In 2020, Latinos surpassed 50% of residents, making Bakersfield the fifth-largest \u003ca href=\"https://www.bakersfield.com/news/people-of-hispanic-origin-become-majority-in-kern-county-in-2020-census/article_d37012d2-fbb6-11eb-b08c-830148e50386.html\">majority-Latino city\u003c/a> in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pablo Rodriguez, founder and executive director of Communities for a New California Education Fund, said he saw this shift firsthand coming of age in Bakersfield. “When I was growing up, there was never a Latino-majority anything … It changes the basic math. Now we finally have to be taken into account,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That isn’t an automatic boon for Democrats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ignasio Castillo, a life-long southeast Bakersfield resident and student-body vice president at California State University, Bakersfield, says he sees a political tension in the city’s Latino community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of Latinos do have a conservative mindset a lot of the time,” he said, particularly on issues like abortion and LGBTQ+ rights. But as part of a disproportionately lower-income community, many voters are also inclined to support “change for your communities — and a lot of that is progressive values.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bonifacio Gurrola, a 44-year-old Navy veteran and fuel-truck driver who lives on the far south end of the city, said he wants to see change, but not the progressive kind. He vowed to vote “anything Republican to get California back to normal. If not, we’ll probably be, like some people, moving out of state.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gurrola said his parents brought him to the country as a child illegally. But border security, along with inflation and crime, remain his top concerns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perez says there’s “contention” between Kern’s growing nonwhite populations and those who have historically controlled local politics, mostly Republicans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What you have is a small group of people who do not want to let go of power, and they do not represent the whole of Kern County,” Perez said, referring to longtime Republican leaders including House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy and state Sen. Shannon Grove.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the redistricting could turn the tide for the county’s Latino and Sikh communities seeking representation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a broader sense that things are more fair now, that we have a fair shot and it just comes down to electing people,” said Bob Alvarez, former chief of staff to Dean Florez,\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>the first Latino to represent the Central Valley in the state Senate.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A blurring of red and blue\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Some Republicans also acknowledge the changing face of the region. And they see it as an opportunity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t think that Republicans in general have done a good job reaching those voters,” said Shepard, the state Senate candidate, whose great-grandfather immigrated from Mexico. “That is going to change with me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I look at Latinos as being taken advantage of by the Democratic Party,” he said at a fundraiser last week for Republican candidates. “(Democrats) pretend like they’re going to be there for you, but then they’re going to turn around and stab you in the back, and your kids are going to suffer.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His opponent is Hurtado, a Fresno native and \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/legislator-tracker/home/#cm-ld-landing__ideology\">the Senate’s most moderate Democrat\u003c/a> who earlier this week \u003ca href=\"https://www.kget.com/news/politics/your-local-elections/melissa-hurtado-pulls-out-of-17-news-debate-with-david-shepard\">backed out at the last minute from a scheduled debate\u003c/a> on KGET, the local NBC affiliate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She has occasionally irked her more liberal fellow party members for her votes on \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/inside-california-capitol/2019/09/last-minute-switch-serves-california-oil-company-environmentalists-cry-foul/\">oil industry regulations\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.fresnobee.com/news/politics-government/article251039264.html\">public health\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.turnto23.com/news/local-news/california-farm-bureau-rally-against-ab-616\">agricultural\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.agri-pulse.com/articles/17239-california-would-dissolve-state-water-board-under-new-bill\">water\u003c/a> policy. But there’s a sensible political logic behind Hurtado’s voting record. The oil industry alone \u003ca href=\"https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelbernick/2021/03/23/kern-county-oil-and-the-fight-to-keep-a-blue-collar-california/?sh=57a1acc6a3a8\">employs 1 in 7 jobs in Kern County\u003c/a>, and agriculture employs even more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an interview at the Padre Hotel, an eight-story landmark in downtown Bakersfield, she told CalMatters that though she wants to learn more about Gov. Gavin Newsom’s \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2022/10/newsom-gas-rebate-special-session/\">proposal to tax the “windfall profits” of California oil companies\u003c/a>, she isn’t enthusiastic about the idea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A tax is never good — not good — for Valley families,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If that position puts her out of step with most Democrats, so be it, she said. “Your party doesn’t really make a difference here,” she said. “You have Democrats that vote for Republicans if they believe in them, and you have Republicans who vote for Democrats if they believe in them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Hurtado’s stance has cost her some traditional Democratic allies. She was not invited to the county party’s\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>Saturday canvassing event, a snub she attributed in part to her endorsement of Bains over the party-backed Perez.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some advocates for safe drinking water have turned against the incumbent for her call to dissolve the state’s Water Resources Control Board\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>and replace it with a commission of experts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It may seem a little extreme, but it’s best to start somewhere and call it out then to have status quo, because status quo is not working for folks,” Hurtado said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Janaki Anagha at the Community Water Center, a statewide advocacy group, called the proposal “bananas,” and said her organization “vehemently” opposes it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That is one of our only ways to really ensure that there’s a future in any way for some of these communities that deal with water quality and quantity issues,” Anagha said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hurtado has also alienated many of the local unions that would otherwise be the natural allies of a Democrat. In September, the Building Trades Council of Kern, Inyo and Mono counties endorsed Shepard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dillon Savory, executive director of the Fresno-Madera-Tulare-Kings Central Labor Council, said he wasn’t surprised. Organized labor was instrumental in helping Hurtado beat an incumbent Republican in 2018, but he said Hurtado has not repaid the favor and “just became a symbol of how to walk away from your allies and not have labor’s back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Savory’s group has not taken an official position in this year’s race, he said: “I hope she loses.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hurtado shrugged off the disapproval; she has backing from some unions. She also has the support of fellow Senate Democrats, who \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CjyN8nev7l3/\">were in town\u003c/a> the same day as the local party canvass to help her. They and party groups have \u003ca href=\"https://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Campaign/Committees/Detail.aspx?id=1414453&view=general\">contributed $1.9 million\u003c/a>. Independent political groups have spent another $1.4 million on her campaign, while Shepard has raised only roughly $900,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shepard said he welcomes the fight. “It’s an honor to challenge them,” he said. “I’m from the Central Valley, so I mean, we’ve got enough cowboy in us to where we don’t care who it is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "East Bakersfield may be the most fiercely fought-over part of the state for the November 8 election, with key races for the US House and the state Legislature intersecting in the changing, mostly Latino area.",
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"description": "East Bakersfield may be the most fiercely fought-over part of the state for the November 8 election, with key races for the US House and the state Legislature intersecting in the changing, mostly Latino area.",
"title": "'Overlooked': How the Central Valley Became California's Most Fiercely Contested Political Turf | KQED",
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"nprByline": "\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/author/ben-christopher/\">Ben Christopher\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/author/ariel-gans/\">Ariel Gans\u003c/a>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>On an already hot Saturday morning in east Bakersfield, state Assembly candidate Leticia Perez stands at the front of the electrical workers’ local union hall, working a crowd of fellow Democrats ready to knock on doors and talk to voters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the thrust of Perez’s message has bipartisan appeal. Bakersfield is not like the rest of California\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Many people outside this community think they know us. They don’t,” said Perez.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Indeed, voters are being told what to do in millions of dollars in TV ads produced by high-powered consultants from Sacramento and Washington, D.C. They’re being interviewed by national reporters parachuting in to take the pulse of a pivotal area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union hall is less than a mile from Buck Owens’ Crystal Palace, the iconic country and western bar that for many symbolizes the Dust Bowl origins of Bakersfield. But looking at the assembled volunteers, Perez describes a region and political moment that seem far removed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I see my Indian brothers and sisters in the back, and I see my Black familia here today. I see a few Latinos … I got a lot of my \u003ca href=\"https://www.abc10.com/article/entertainment/television/programs/backroads/home-of-the-okies-and-merle-haggard/103-0f251d5f-698a-4ea1-8022-a83eca03a476\">Okie\u003c/a> brothers and sisters here, too, in the house!” she said, as the applause grew. “That’s right! Kern County is what we say it is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whether that’s true is a question at the heart of three overlapping toss-up elections on November 8 that make this stretch of the southern Central Valley — nearly the size of Connecticut — among the most competitive pieces of political turf in America.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s the \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-voter-guide-2022/us-house/house-races/#hot-district-22\">congressional race\u003c/a> between Republican U.S. Rep. David Valadao and Democratic \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/legislator-tracker/rudy-salas-1977/\">Assemblymember Rudy Salas\u003c/a>, now the second-most expensive House contest in the country and one that \u003ca href=\"https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/analyzing-key-midterm-races-that-could-decide-control-of-the-house\">could help determine which party controls the next Congress\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s the contest between \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/legislator-tracker/melissa-hurtado-1988/\">state Sen. Melissa Hurtado\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-voter-guide-2022/state-senate/senate-races/#hot-district-16\">widely considered to be the most endangered Democratic incumbent\u003c/a> in the Legislature, and political\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>newcomer David Shepard, the Republican scion of a Tulare County farming family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11929774\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11929774\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/101922_Bakersfield_Election_LV_CM_09-copy.jpg\" alt='A young Latina woman looks on with a poster behind her that says \"David Valadao for Congress\"' width=\"1568\" height=\"1045\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/101922_Bakersfield_Election_LV_CM_09-copy.jpg 1568w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/101922_Bakersfield_Election_LV_CM_09-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/101922_Bakersfield_Election_LV_CM_09-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/101922_Bakersfield_Election_LV_CM_09-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/101922_Bakersfield_Election_LV_CM_09-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A volunteer sits at the Republican National Committee office in Bakersfield during a training for door-to-door canvassing on Oct. 14, 2022. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela/CalMatters-CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And there’s the \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-voter-guide-2022/state-assembly/assembly-races/#hot-district-35\">face-off for the local Assembly seat\u003c/a> between \u003ca href=\"https://www.leticiaperez.org/\">Perez\u003c/a> and fellow Democrat \u003ca href=\"https://www.drjasmeetbains.com/\">Jasmeet Bains\u003c/a>, who have attracted the financial backing of the \u003ca href=\"https://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Campaign/Committees/Detail.aspx?id=1454778\">oil industry\u003c/a> and the \u003ca href=\"https://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Campaign/Committees/Detail.aspx?id=1447991&view=received\">state doctors lobby\u003c/a>, respectively.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The outcome of all three races will be determined by voters in east Bakersfield, historically the city’s poorer, Latino, less politically powerful side, as well as voters in the agricultural towns that dot the road north to Fresno: Shafter, Delano, McFarland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The stakes are high. Kern County has California’s \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/justice/2021/12/kern-county-homicide-rate-gangs/\">highest homicide rate\u003c/a>. It is often blanketed with \u003ca href=\"https://www.lung.org/research/sota/city-rankings/states/california/kern\">noxious air\u003c/a>. The share of the \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/justice/2022/08/california-incarceration-rates-rural/\">population behind bars\u003c/a> is among the highest in the state and its \u003ca href=\"https://www.countyhealthrankings.org/app/california/2022/rankings/kern/county/outcomes/overall/snapshot\">public health numbers\u003c/a> are among the lowest. Choosing effective representatives in Sacramento and Washington, D.C., is essential.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The irony of this sudden surge of outside attention on an area so often overshadowed and beset by so many problems is not lost on some residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel as if there are two perceptions of California: It’s either Northern California or Southern California,” said Manpreet Kaur, a 29-year-old Democrat running for Bakersfield City Council. “This entire Central Valley region tends to be overlooked. But this is where I think you find the hardest-working people with grit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Republicans and Democrats alike repeat the line that Kern County — the center of the state’s agricultural and oil industries — feeds and fuels California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And yet we’re treated like a stepchild,” said Republican consultant Cathy Abernathy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s also a place that defies the expectations and political rules of thumb that govern elections across the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This area has sent Valadao to Congress six times despite \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-voter-guide-2022/us-house/house-races/#hot-district-22\">Democrats outnumbering Republicans by double digits\u003c/a>. While\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>the electorate is overwhelmingly Latino, they’re not \u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/publication/californias-political-geography/\">necessarily like the liberal-leaning Latino voters\u003c/a> on the coast.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "'I feel as if there are two perceptions of California: It's either Northern California or Southern California. This entire Central Valley region tends to be overlooked. But this is where I think you find the hardest-working people with grit.'",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>There’s “the myth that there is going to be change because of the demographic numbers — that demographics is destiny. That’s not necessarily the case,” said Ivy Cargile, political science professor at California State University, Bakersfield.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And partisan labels don’t determine where a candidate stands on issues as much as they do elsewhere in the state. Valadao was one of just 10 Republicans to vote to impeach former President Donald Trump. Salas and Hurtado regularly irk the Democratic Party’s liberal base. The Central Valley is home to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/publication/californias-political-geography/\">highest number of conservative Democrats in the state\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That may be an oxymoron in much of California, but at the union hall, Perez embraces the description. “We like to say we have a purple center. We’re merging and changing and evolving,” she said. “We’re a melting pot.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The 'Publishers Clearing House guy'\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Knocking on doors in a subdivision on the southern outskirts of Bakersfield last Saturday, Salas seems to enjoy the personal touch of campaigning — even if the going is a little slower than the average volunteer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because voters who recognize him will invite him in for a beer, some barbeque or pan dulce, and he always accepts, he said. Earlier this month, however, he \u003ca href=\"https://gvwire.com/2022/10/12/with-eyes-of-nation-watching-salas-ducks-out-of-tv-debate-vs-valadao/\">reneged on an invitation to a televised debate\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nationally, election messaging has taken on a rote consistency: Democrats accuse Republicans of wanting to end the right to an abortion. Republicans blame Democrats for persistent inflation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While those arguments are familiar to Bakersfield voters, Salas says his congressional race is going to be won or lost on personal connections in this close-knit community — that, and who has delivered the most to the district while in office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s about putting food on the table. It’s about providing opportunities for their kids and for themselves,” he said. “I’m kind of like that Publishers Clearing House guy. I keep bringing taxpayers' money back into the district.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Salas is exaggerating, but only a little. This month, he has delivered oversized checks to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jq99NrR9Bu8\">hospital\u003c/a>, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Biy6m1pKrGQ\">community college\u003c/a> and a \u003ca href=\"https://www.bakersfield.com/news/salas-announces-500k-for-shepower-leadership-academy/article_cadc502e-44f6-11ed-96d7-d70379bbe2a0.html\">local nonprofit\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Apparently that’s a tried-and-true political tactic. The day before Salas went canvassing, Hurtado celebrated new funding she helped secure to repair the Friant-Kern Canal. On prominent display: a supersized check for $100 million with Hurtado’s signature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Salas and Hurtado aren’t the only ones showering the area in cash this election.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11929776\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11929776\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/101922_Bakersfield_Election_LV_CM_03-copy.jpg\" alt='A Latina woman speaks under a fold-up tent that has \"Melissa Hurtado, Senator, 14th District\" written on it.' width=\"1568\" height=\"1045\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/101922_Bakersfield_Election_LV_CM_03-copy.jpg 1568w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/101922_Bakersfield_Election_LV_CM_03-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/101922_Bakersfield_Election_LV_CM_03-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/101922_Bakersfield_Election_LV_CM_03-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/101922_Bakersfield_Election_LV_CM_03-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">State Sen. Melissa Hurtado speaks at a press conference where she presented a $100 million check to repair the Friant-Kern Canal near Terra Bella on Oct. 14, 2022. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela/CalMatters-CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At $14.5 million and counting, the 22nd District is the second largest money magnet for outside political spending of any House race in the country. Salas has raised $2.2 million, while Valadao has brought in $3.2 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Valadao has survived most prior Democratic challenges (he lost the seat in 2018, but returned two years later) by relying on white conservatives turning out in higher numbers than \u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/publication/race-and-voting-in-california/\">Democratic-leaning Latinos\u003c/a> and by carving out a moderate reputation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the state’s redistricting shaved off the conservative north end of the district, Valadao’s home turf, and added more of Kern County, which is more Latino and Democratic — and less familiar with him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If Salas wins, he would be the first Latino member of Congress in the Central Valley, despite \u003ca href=\"https://www.fresnobee.com/vida-en-el-valle/opinion-es/article253547814.html\">six Valley counties\u003c/a> having a Latino majority. Nearly 60% of the congressional district’s voters are Latino.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Valadao, through his spokesperson, declined to be interviewed for this story. But the national GOP establishment — at least those portions at peace with his impeachment vote — are riding to his rescue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this week, former Vice President \u003ca href=\"https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/local-news/former-vp-mike-pence-in-fresno-for-valadao-campaign/\">Mike Pence showed up in Fresno\u003c/a> to make a pitch for Valadao.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In July, the Republican National Committee opened a Hispanic Community Center in a south Bakersfield strip mall as part of a nationwide effort to capitalize on \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/14/politics/latino-voters-texas-15th/index.html\">Democratic weakness in Latino-majority districts in Texas and Florida\u003c/a> in the 2020 election. But it’s also an acknowledgement that Valadao won’t win unless he can appeal directly to the district’s majority.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A demographic and political shift\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>On a Friday evening, roughly two dozen elected officials and other community leaders gathered in McFarland, a town 25 miles north of Bakersfield, to talk about crime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Four days earlier, \u003ca href=\"https://abc30.com/delano-drive-by-shooting-one-man-killed-two-victims-airlifted/12312949/\">two people were killed\u003c/a> in a drive-by shooting in nearby Delano. Rumors about an impending gang war rippled through the community. Parents kept their kids out of school, and the school district canceled a much-anticipated high school homecoming football game.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The meeting was organized by Assembly candidate Bains, a family doctor backed by the California Medical Association. She says she opted to run against a well-established politician, even as she continues to see patients, to try to address crime and other issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What prescription can I write that’s going to clear the bad air quality that my community sees? What prescription can I write that’s going to increase access to quality water? What prescription can I write to address domestic abuse?” she said. “I can treat the patient in my clinic, but what can I do once they leave my clinic?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While not a campaign event, the meeting did highlight a few of Bains’ selling points. One is her appeal to bipartisanship. Perez has the support of the Kern County Democratic Party, whose chairperson is Perez’s campaign manager. Bains, independent of the party establishment, may be the more likely option for GOP-leaning voters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>David Couch, a Kern County supervisor and registered Republican, is among them. “Hey, Jasmeet, have I formally endorsed you?” he asked Bains after the meeting. “I can be for or against you, whatever helps you the most.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The contest between Bains and Perez, however, is about more than competing Democratic factions. It also reflects an inflection point as the region’s political representation begins to catch up with the growing ethnic diversity of its population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2013, Perez became the first Latina ever elected to the Board of Supervisors in Kern County, which is 56% Latino. And if Bains is elected, she would be the first Sikh and the first South Asian woman to serve in the Legislature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11929778\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11929778\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/101922_Bakersfield_Election_LV_CM_21-copy.jpg\" alt=\"a white man sites to the right of an Indian woman with another woman sitting to the left as they sit behind a table and listen to a man speak.\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1045\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/101922_Bakersfield_Election_LV_CM_21-copy.jpg 1568w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/101922_Bakersfield_Election_LV_CM_21-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/101922_Bakersfield_Election_LV_CM_21-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/101922_Bakersfield_Election_LV_CM_21-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/101922_Bakersfield_Election_LV_CM_21-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">State Assembly candidate Jasmeet Bains hosts a roundtable with local leaders in the town of McFarland after an uptick in gang-related violence in the community on Oct. 14, 2022. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela/CalMatters-CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The changing leadership is also one of politics. Bakersfield, where the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/11/us/california-housing-bakersfield.html\">population grew faster than that of any of the state’s most populous cities in 2020\u003c/a>, underwent a historic redistricting this year — one that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kget.com/news/local-news/final-public-hearing-regarding-ward-redistricting/\">created three new Latino-majority city council districts and united the city’s Sikh and Punjabi\u003c/a> populations in one of them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaur, the city council candidate, was part of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.turnto23.com/news/local-news/punjabi-community-and-other-community-members-celebrate-new-approved-redistricting-map\">local redistricting effort\u003c/a> that she hopes will bolster her community’s electoral voice: “It’s so important to keep our community together, because we’ve literally been divided.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If she wins, she would be the first member of the city’s sizable Punjabi population to serve on the council, and she would give Democrats a majority on the body for the first time in recent memory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Bakersfield’s Punjabi population is not the only one on the political ascent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city’s Latino population has been growing since the early 1980s, when efforts to recruit low-wage labor launched an ongoing wave of immigration. In 2020, Latinos surpassed 50% of residents, making Bakersfield the fifth-largest \u003ca href=\"https://www.bakersfield.com/news/people-of-hispanic-origin-become-majority-in-kern-county-in-2020-census/article_d37012d2-fbb6-11eb-b08c-830148e50386.html\">majority-Latino city\u003c/a> in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pablo Rodriguez, founder and executive director of Communities for a New California Education Fund, said he saw this shift firsthand coming of age in Bakersfield. “When I was growing up, there was never a Latino-majority anything … It changes the basic math. Now we finally have to be taken into account,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That isn’t an automatic boon for Democrats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ignasio Castillo, a life-long southeast Bakersfield resident and student-body vice president at California State University, Bakersfield, says he sees a political tension in the city’s Latino community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of Latinos do have a conservative mindset a lot of the time,” he said, particularly on issues like abortion and LGBTQ+ rights. But as part of a disproportionately lower-income community, many voters are also inclined to support “change for your communities — and a lot of that is progressive values.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bonifacio Gurrola, a 44-year-old Navy veteran and fuel-truck driver who lives on the far south end of the city, said he wants to see change, but not the progressive kind. He vowed to vote “anything Republican to get California back to normal. If not, we’ll probably be, like some people, moving out of state.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gurrola said his parents brought him to the country as a child illegally. But border security, along with inflation and crime, remain his top concerns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perez says there’s “contention” between Kern’s growing nonwhite populations and those who have historically controlled local politics, mostly Republicans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What you have is a small group of people who do not want to let go of power, and they do not represent the whole of Kern County,” Perez said, referring to longtime Republican leaders including House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy and state Sen. Shannon Grove.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the redistricting could turn the tide for the county’s Latino and Sikh communities seeking representation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a broader sense that things are more fair now, that we have a fair shot and it just comes down to electing people,” said Bob Alvarez, former chief of staff to Dean Florez,\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>the first Latino to represent the Central Valley in the state Senate.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A blurring of red and blue\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Some Republicans also acknowledge the changing face of the region. And they see it as an opportunity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t think that Republicans in general have done a good job reaching those voters,” said Shepard, the state Senate candidate, whose great-grandfather immigrated from Mexico. “That is going to change with me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I look at Latinos as being taken advantage of by the Democratic Party,” he said at a fundraiser last week for Republican candidates. “(Democrats) pretend like they’re going to be there for you, but then they’re going to turn around and stab you in the back, and your kids are going to suffer.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His opponent is Hurtado, a Fresno native and \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/legislator-tracker/home/#cm-ld-landing__ideology\">the Senate’s most moderate Democrat\u003c/a> who earlier this week \u003ca href=\"https://www.kget.com/news/politics/your-local-elections/melissa-hurtado-pulls-out-of-17-news-debate-with-david-shepard\">backed out at the last minute from a scheduled debate\u003c/a> on KGET, the local NBC affiliate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She has occasionally irked her more liberal fellow party members for her votes on \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/inside-california-capitol/2019/09/last-minute-switch-serves-california-oil-company-environmentalists-cry-foul/\">oil industry regulations\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.fresnobee.com/news/politics-government/article251039264.html\">public health\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.turnto23.com/news/local-news/california-farm-bureau-rally-against-ab-616\">agricultural\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.agri-pulse.com/articles/17239-california-would-dissolve-state-water-board-under-new-bill\">water\u003c/a> policy. But there’s a sensible political logic behind Hurtado’s voting record. The oil industry alone \u003ca href=\"https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelbernick/2021/03/23/kern-county-oil-and-the-fight-to-keep-a-blue-collar-california/?sh=57a1acc6a3a8\">employs 1 in 7 jobs in Kern County\u003c/a>, and agriculture employs even more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an interview at the Padre Hotel, an eight-story landmark in downtown Bakersfield, she told CalMatters that though she wants to learn more about Gov. Gavin Newsom’s \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2022/10/newsom-gas-rebate-special-session/\">proposal to tax the “windfall profits” of California oil companies\u003c/a>, she isn’t enthusiastic about the idea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A tax is never good — not good — for Valley families,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If that position puts her out of step with most Democrats, so be it, she said. “Your party doesn’t really make a difference here,” she said. “You have Democrats that vote for Republicans if they believe in them, and you have Republicans who vote for Democrats if they believe in them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Hurtado’s stance has cost her some traditional Democratic allies. She was not invited to the county party’s\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>Saturday canvassing event, a snub she attributed in part to her endorsement of Bains over the party-backed Perez.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some advocates for safe drinking water have turned against the incumbent for her call to dissolve the state’s Water Resources Control Board\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>and replace it with a commission of experts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It may seem a little extreme, but it’s best to start somewhere and call it out then to have status quo, because status quo is not working for folks,” Hurtado said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Janaki Anagha at the Community Water Center, a statewide advocacy group, called the proposal “bananas,” and said her organization “vehemently” opposes it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That is one of our only ways to really ensure that there’s a future in any way for some of these communities that deal with water quality and quantity issues,” Anagha said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hurtado has also alienated many of the local unions that would otherwise be the natural allies of a Democrat. In September, the Building Trades Council of Kern, Inyo and Mono counties endorsed Shepard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dillon Savory, executive director of the Fresno-Madera-Tulare-Kings Central Labor Council, said he wasn’t surprised. Organized labor was instrumental in helping Hurtado beat an incumbent Republican in 2018, but he said Hurtado has not repaid the favor and “just became a symbol of how to walk away from your allies and not have labor’s back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Savory’s group has not taken an official position in this year’s race, he said: “I hope she loses.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hurtado shrugged off the disapproval; she has backing from some unions. She also has the support of fellow Senate Democrats, who \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CjyN8nev7l3/\">were in town\u003c/a> the same day as the local party canvass to help her. They and party groups have \u003ca href=\"https://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Campaign/Committees/Detail.aspx?id=1414453&view=general\">contributed $1.9 million\u003c/a>. Independent political groups have spent another $1.4 million on her campaign, while Shepard has raised only roughly $900,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shepard said he welcomes the fight. “It’s an honor to challenge them,” he said. “I’m from the Central Valley, so I mean, we’ve got enough cowboy in us to where we don’t care who it is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "When and Why Did the Bay Area Become So Liberal?",
"headTitle": "When and Why Did the Bay Area Become So Liberal? | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>This article first published on August 20, 2020. It has been updated to reflect recent events, including the death of Lawrence Ferlinghetti on February 22, 2021. You can find a transcript of this Bay Curious episode \u003ca href=\"https://bit.ly/3N6YHg3\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a little hard to believe today, but the GOP nominated perhaps their most conservative presidential candidate in modern history right here in the Bay Area — at the Cow Palace in Daly City.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s no question that today, the nine-county Bay Area is solidly blue. But the first thing you notice when you ask people \u003ci>when\u003c/i> that happened, is that you get a lot of different answers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“San Francisco is the center of that progressive liberal ethos. And I think it begins with the origins of the city in the Gold Rush,” said former San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That would be like, \u003ci>18\u003c/i>50. But maybe it was more like the \u003ci>19\u003c/i>50s with the Beat Generation writers, like Allen Ginsburg.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was a sort of seminal moment, a turning point for the whole generation in the same way that Woodstock was for the hippies in that they basically saw that they existed, that there was this whole subculture of pot smoking, jazz loving, poetry, writing, painting-making people,” says writer Steve Silberman who came to San Francisco in 1979 and was friends with Ginsburg.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriouspodcastinfo]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Or maybe it was 10 years later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think if you had to look at the one seminal event that changed things, it was the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964,” said former Republican Party chair Duf Sundheim.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s truth in all that.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>New Arrivals Have Long Shaped Local Politics\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The seeds of San Francisco’s liberal leanings were planted early and those seeds have one thing in common, says a guy who was part of the Bay Area’s liberal arc — Art Agnos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Over the years, what I call a cultural ideology has evolved in San Francisco from that time where people come to this city seeking opportunity and freedom,” he said recently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Agnos was one of those people. Born in Springfield, Mass., he eventually got on a Greyhound bus and headed west.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And then 10 years after I got off that bus, I was elected to the state Legislature. In 20 years. I’m the mayor of this magnificent city,” Agnos said. “Nowhere else in American could that happen. And so they want to change things. And San Francisco encourages that change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11765137\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11765137\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/08/agnos2-800x586.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"586\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/08/agnos2-800x586.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/08/agnos2-160x117.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/08/agnos2.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mayor Art Agnos fields questions during a news conference in 1989 announcing the city’s master plan on homelessness. \u003ccite>(Sam Forencich/SF Chronicle)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That story — leaving the place you were born and coming to San Francisco — has been repeated for 150 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We see people who are not happy, not satisfied, express some kind of discomfort with the status quo from wherever they came from,” Agnos said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whether that status quo is poverty, political oppression, homophobia or racism, San Francisco became a beacon for people who wanted something different.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And a lot of those people — like Agnos — became very active in politics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some of the brilliant politicians we see today, whether it’s Nancy Pelosi, whether it is Kamala Harris, Willie Brown, Leo McCarthy, Phil Burton, all of them \u003cem>came\u003c/em> to this city,” Agnos said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Phil Burton is a key part of that. It was Burton’s brother, John, who pushed another newcomer to San Francisco toward politics: Willie Brown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11834223\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 501px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11834223\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/AAZ-0358.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"501\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/AAZ-0358.jpg 501w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/AAZ-0358-160x128.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 501px) 100vw, 501px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Assemblyman Leo T. McCarthy, Assemblyman Willie L. Brown, Congressman Phil Burton, and Art Agnos in the early 1980’s. \u003ccite>(San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Brown came to have a huge influence on California and Bay Area politics — some say he still does — as Assembly Speaker and later as mayor. But when he got here in 1951?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was not an observer of what was going on politically in San Francisco, although I instantly became a member of the youth group of the NAACP,” Brown said. “They talked about things like Black people becoming police officers, Black people driving busses, Black people becoming deputy sheriffs, Black people becoming firemen. I heard all those things in the NAACP.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown enrolled at what is now San Francisco State University. That’s where he met a guy named John Burton. He was Phillip Burton’s brother.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And I heard things about politics from Burton. As a matter of fact, I joined the Young Democrats because Burton encouraged me and invited me to join,” Brown says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11834227\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-11834227 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/RS8643_IMG_2139-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/RS8643_IMG_2139-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/RS8643_IMG_2139-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/RS8643_IMG_2139-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/RS8643_IMG_2139-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/RS8643_IMG_2139-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/RS8643_IMG_2139.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Willie Brown addresses guests at the dedication to the Willie L. Brown Jr. Bridge (better known as the Bay Bridge) in 2014, \u003ccite>(Mark Andrew Boyer/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Brown says then, the political division wasn’t left or right, red or blue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was a separation of newcomers and old timers. We didn’t call them liberals and we didn’t call them conservatives. But there were newcomers and old timers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newcomers like him — and the Burtons.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Cultural Changes Drive Politics\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>That was in the mid-50s. San Francisco still had a pretty vibrant Republican party. In 1955 the city elected a Republican, George Christopher, as the city’s mayor in a landslide. He was reelected four years later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there was an alternate cultural movement underway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11834513\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 322px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11834513\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/AAD-2816.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"322\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/AAD-2816.jpg 322w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/AAD-2816-160x199.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 322px) 100vw, 322px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lawrence Ferlinghetti reading poetry at The Coffee Gallery on Grant Avenue in 1959. \u003ccite>(San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“There was a lot of poetry and cultural ferment going on in the city at the time, in part because rents were still pretty low in neighborhoods like North Beach. City Lights Bookstore was already here, owned by Lawrence Ferlinghetti,” said author \u003ca href=\"https://www.stevesilberman.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Steve Silberman\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That ferment was a stew of alternate voices, writing and thinking in the Bay Area — a generation known as the Beats. They had art shows and readings, studied Buddhism and took a lot of drugs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thinking back on the 1950s, Silberman says, “It was a sort of seminal moment, a turning point for the whole generation … in that they basically saw that they existed, that there was this whole subculture of pot smoking, jazz loving, poetry, writing, painting-making people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11834515\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 282px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11834515\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/alan.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"282\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/alan.jpg 282w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/alan-160x227.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 282px) 100vw, 282px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Poet Allen Ginsberg marching with a group of pickets protesting U.S. policies in Vietnam in 1963. \u003ccite>(San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While that whole countercultural thing is happening, discrimination in the South created a great migration of Black Americans to the Bay Area and other parts of California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They were not run of the mill. These were the talented tenth, the best of the best. They came to the West Coast and it liberalized the Bay Area because it diversified it,” said USF political science professor James Taylor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11834511\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 497px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11834511\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/MOR-0681.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"497\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/MOR-0681.jpg 497w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/MOR-0681-160x129.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 497px) 100vw, 497px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jazz musician Dizzy Gillespie with Republican Mayor George Christopher. \u003ccite>(San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Taylor says you can’t talk about the Bay Area’s changing politics without mentioning the jazz scene that developed in the city’s Fillmore District. And the conductor of that cacophony of liberalization — that guy named Phillip Burton.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Burton Builds a Liberal Movement as Republicans Migrate Right\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In the 1960s Phillip Burton, a gruff, plain spoken and passionate political strategist, begins pulling together a liberal movement involving a wide range of groups — including labor unions, Black people and gay folks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Although Burton’s name does not get mentioned as regularly as it used to. It hangs over the city because it set the foundation for what the power establishment in the city is right now, which is mainstream liberalism,” Taylor says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Phil Burton helped Willie Brown, a young defense lawyer whose clients included prostitutes and pimps, get elected to the State Assembly in 1964.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That same year Republicans held their national convention at the Cow Palace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11834514\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 475px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11834514\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/protesters.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"475\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/protesters.jpg 475w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/protesters-160x135.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 475px) 100vw, 475px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Civil rights demonstrators blocked the an exit at the Cow Palace during the Republican National Convention in 1964. \u003ccite>(San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>There was a split between two wings of the party, with the more liberal segment supporting civil rights, while Sen. Barry Goldwater’s camp opposing it. Goldwater won out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He ultimately lost California and the nation to Lyndon B. Johnson in a landslide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By that time Democrats had almost 60% of registered voters in the nine-county Bay Area, compared to 40% for Republicans. There were still plenty of Republicans representing the Bay Area in Congress and the state legislature. But as Willie Brown notes, they were a different kind of Republican than the ones we think of today, especially in places like Marin County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And it was not conservative, but it was Republican, period. It was traditional Republicans rather than the kind that Goldwater advocated,” Brown says, adding that at that point there weren’t huge partisan differences on the major issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Things like education, infrastructure or pollution — all those things were merged,” Brown says, meaning the two parties largely agreed or had modest disagreements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But social issues that would come to divide Democrats and Republicans more sharply were becoming more evident.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Hippies Come to Town as Burton’s Influence Grows\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In 1967, thousands of young people from all over the country — hippies they were called — converged on Golden Gate Park and the Haight Ashbury neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The music, sex and drugs attracted a lot of free-spirited young people to San Francisco, and some stuck to channel their energy into causes like the environment and the women’s movement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It wasn’t any political party … It was activists creating the opportunity. And many of the people who embraced that early just happened have already been registered as Democrats,” said Willie Brown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When San Francisco Mayor Joe Alioto went to the Democratic convention in Chicago in 1968 to introduced the party’s nominee, there was a lot of booing from Democrats opposed to the war. And representing the party’s anti-war faction? Congressman Phillip Burton.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That progressive strain in the Bay Area, especially in San Francisco and Oakland, was became known as the Burton Machine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Burton machine was an assembly of people who shared what I’m calling in our discussion here, the cultural ideology of San Francisco, which they turned into politics,” said Agnos, who was part of that machine. “They brought together an assembly of people, activist volunteers, Civil Rights Act, all of that. And they hung together with a loyalty because of their common commitment to the issues that they all believed in.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1974, the Burton Machine helped elect State Senator George Moscone as mayor of San Francisco. It ushered in a progressive era in the city which included the election of the first openly gay supervisor, Harvey Milk. It all came crashing down in 1978 when Moscone and Milk were murdered at City Hall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11834516\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 497px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11834516\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/AAZ-0263.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"497\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/AAZ-0263.jpg 497w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/AAZ-0263-160x129.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 497px) 100vw, 497px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A crowd gathers at City Hall after the murders of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. \u003ccite>(San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>The Birth of “San Francisco Democrats”\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>After the assassinations, Dianne Feinstein set out to boost the city’s image by hosting the Democratic National Convention in 1984.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Feinstein was on the cover of Time Magazine as one of two women being considered to be former Vice President Walter Mondale’s running mate. As it turned out the other woman on the cover — Geraldine Ferraro — was picked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Besides Ferraro, the first woman on a major party ticket, the talk of the convention was the keynote speech of New York Governor Mario Cuomo, who belittled President Reagan’s vision of America.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOdIqKsv624&feature=youtu.be\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Out of that convention came a phrase that came to symbolize liberals: “San Francisco Democrats.” It was used by Republicans as shorthand for extreme and liberal … anti-war, pro-gay rights and supporting a woman’s access to an abortion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By then, the Bay Area had moved solidly to the left. The last Bay Area county carried by a Republican presidential candidate was Napa, carried by George Bush in 1988. Bill Clinton carried the state in 1992 and since then, it’s been sea of blue.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>National GOP Moves Further Right\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Duf Sundheim was chair of the California GOP when Arnold Schwarzenegger was governor. He says the 1990s were when Republicans fell off the cliff. Polling showed when California voters were asked who they thought of when they thought of Republican, most said GOP firebrand Newt Gingrich.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And we asked them what their view was of a California Democrat. It was Bill Clinton. And it was very clear that people identified much more closely with Bill Clinton than they did with Newt Gingrich,” Sundheim said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[emailsignup newslettername=\"baycurious\" align=\"right\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soon the national Republican party realized California was a lost cause.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Once there was a sense that we couldn’t hold on to California, we couldn’t hold on to New England, then those more conservative views came to dominate the Republican Party. And more liberal areas like the Bay Area really went heavily Democratic,” Sundheim said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By then issues like immigration, gun control, gay rights and abortion were front and center. Sundheim remembers how hard it became to raise money from Bay Area corporations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The CEO would say, look, Duf, I’d love to write a check to the Republican Party, but if my wife ever sees that I write a check to the anti-abortion party, I’m gonna get divorced.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By 2001 there was just one Republican congressman from the Bay Area, moderate Tom Campbell. And the number of Bay Area Republicans in Sacramento was shrinking fast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The last Republican to represent the region in Sacramento was Catharine Baker, who won an Assembly seat in the East Bay in 2014.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I was in the legislature, I had a 100% score from Howard Jarvis and the California Taxpayers Association for my fiscal discipline,” Baker said recently. “The same year I had a 100% rating from Equality California and Planned Parenthood. That’s just the kind of Republican I was and continue to be.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baker sided with Democrats on issues like housing, LGBT rights and the environment. But by 2018, having that “R” next to her name was a scarlet letter. And she lost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would say 80% of the feedback we receive is ‘I know who you are. I like what you do and how you vote. But I cannot vote for a Republican.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today the entire Bay Area delegations to Sacramento and Washington are all Democrats. Registered Democrats far outnumber Republicans — who are essentially a third party now — there are now more voters registered no party preference than Republican. To Democrats, that’s a complete victory. Catharine Baker sees it differently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think all the challenges that face our communities and California are best solved by both parties being in the room, even when you don’t have to have the votes of both parties,” Baker said. “You have longer lasting, better solutions. And that’s what we really need, not just now, but in the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s hard to see Republicans making a comeback in California, let alone the liberal Bay Area any time soon, especially after four years of Donald Trump and his enduring impact on the Republican party nationwide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "There’s no question that today, the nine-county Bay Area is solidly blue. But if you ask people when that happened, you get a lot of different answers.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>This article first published on August 20, 2020. It has been updated to reflect recent events, including the death of Lawrence Ferlinghetti on February 22, 2021. You can find a transcript of this Bay Curious episode \u003ca href=\"https://bit.ly/3N6YHg3\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a little hard to believe today, but the GOP nominated perhaps their most conservative presidential candidate in modern history right here in the Bay Area — at the Cow Palace in Daly City.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s no question that today, the nine-county Bay Area is solidly blue. But the first thing you notice when you ask people \u003ci>when\u003c/i> that happened, is that you get a lot of different answers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“San Francisco is the center of that progressive liberal ethos. And I think it begins with the origins of the city in the Gold Rush,” said former San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That would be like, \u003ci>18\u003c/i>50. But maybe it was more like the \u003ci>19\u003c/i>50s with the Beat Generation writers, like Allen Ginsburg.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was a sort of seminal moment, a turning point for the whole generation in the same way that Woodstock was for the hippies in that they basically saw that they existed, that there was this whole subculture of pot smoking, jazz loving, poetry, writing, painting-making people,” says writer Steve Silberman who came to San Francisco in 1979 and was friends with Ginsburg.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003caside class=\"alignleft utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__bayCuriousPodcastShortcode__bayCurious\">\u003cimg src=https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/bayCuriousLogo.png alt=\"Bay Curious Podcast\" loading=\"lazy\" />\n \u003ca href=\"/news/series/baycurious\">Bay Curious\u003c/a> is a podcast that answers your questions about the Bay Area.\n Subscribe on \u003ca href=\"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/bay-curious/id1172473406\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Apple Podcasts\u003c/a>,\n \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/podcasts/500557090/bay-curious\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR One\u003c/a> or your favorite podcast platform.\u003c/aside>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Or maybe it was 10 years later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think if you had to look at the one seminal event that changed things, it was the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964,” said former Republican Party chair Duf Sundheim.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s truth in all that.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>New Arrivals Have Long Shaped Local Politics\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The seeds of San Francisco’s liberal leanings were planted early and those seeds have one thing in common, says a guy who was part of the Bay Area’s liberal arc — Art Agnos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Over the years, what I call a cultural ideology has evolved in San Francisco from that time where people come to this city seeking opportunity and freedom,” he said recently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Agnos was one of those people. Born in Springfield, Mass., he eventually got on a Greyhound bus and headed west.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And then 10 years after I got off that bus, I was elected to the state Legislature. In 20 years. I’m the mayor of this magnificent city,” Agnos said. “Nowhere else in American could that happen. And so they want to change things. And San Francisco encourages that change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11765137\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11765137\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/08/agnos2-800x586.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"586\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/08/agnos2-800x586.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/08/agnos2-160x117.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/08/agnos2.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mayor Art Agnos fields questions during a news conference in 1989 announcing the city’s master plan on homelessness. \u003ccite>(Sam Forencich/SF Chronicle)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That story — leaving the place you were born and coming to San Francisco — has been repeated for 150 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We see people who are not happy, not satisfied, express some kind of discomfort with the status quo from wherever they came from,” Agnos said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whether that status quo is poverty, political oppression, homophobia or racism, San Francisco became a beacon for people who wanted something different.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And a lot of those people — like Agnos — became very active in politics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some of the brilliant politicians we see today, whether it’s Nancy Pelosi, whether it is Kamala Harris, Willie Brown, Leo McCarthy, Phil Burton, all of them \u003cem>came\u003c/em> to this city,” Agnos said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Phil Burton is a key part of that. It was Burton’s brother, John, who pushed another newcomer to San Francisco toward politics: Willie Brown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11834223\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 501px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11834223\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/AAZ-0358.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"501\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/AAZ-0358.jpg 501w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/AAZ-0358-160x128.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 501px) 100vw, 501px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Assemblyman Leo T. McCarthy, Assemblyman Willie L. Brown, Congressman Phil Burton, and Art Agnos in the early 1980’s. \u003ccite>(San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Brown came to have a huge influence on California and Bay Area politics — some say he still does — as Assembly Speaker and later as mayor. But when he got here in 1951?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was not an observer of what was going on politically in San Francisco, although I instantly became a member of the youth group of the NAACP,” Brown said. “They talked about things like Black people becoming police officers, Black people driving busses, Black people becoming deputy sheriffs, Black people becoming firemen. I heard all those things in the NAACP.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown enrolled at what is now San Francisco State University. That’s where he met a guy named John Burton. He was Phillip Burton’s brother.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And I heard things about politics from Burton. As a matter of fact, I joined the Young Democrats because Burton encouraged me and invited me to join,” Brown says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11834227\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-11834227 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/RS8643_IMG_2139-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/RS8643_IMG_2139-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/RS8643_IMG_2139-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/RS8643_IMG_2139-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/RS8643_IMG_2139-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/RS8643_IMG_2139-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/RS8643_IMG_2139.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Willie Brown addresses guests at the dedication to the Willie L. Brown Jr. Bridge (better known as the Bay Bridge) in 2014, \u003ccite>(Mark Andrew Boyer/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Brown says then, the political division wasn’t left or right, red or blue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was a separation of newcomers and old timers. We didn’t call them liberals and we didn’t call them conservatives. But there were newcomers and old timers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newcomers like him — and the Burtons.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Cultural Changes Drive Politics\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>That was in the mid-50s. San Francisco still had a pretty vibrant Republican party. In 1955 the city elected a Republican, George Christopher, as the city’s mayor in a landslide. He was reelected four years later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there was an alternate cultural movement underway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11834513\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 322px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11834513\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/AAD-2816.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"322\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/AAD-2816.jpg 322w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/AAD-2816-160x199.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 322px) 100vw, 322px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lawrence Ferlinghetti reading poetry at The Coffee Gallery on Grant Avenue in 1959. \u003ccite>(San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“There was a lot of poetry and cultural ferment going on in the city at the time, in part because rents were still pretty low in neighborhoods like North Beach. City Lights Bookstore was already here, owned by Lawrence Ferlinghetti,” said author \u003ca href=\"https://www.stevesilberman.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Steve Silberman\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That ferment was a stew of alternate voices, writing and thinking in the Bay Area — a generation known as the Beats. They had art shows and readings, studied Buddhism and took a lot of drugs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thinking back on the 1950s, Silberman says, “It was a sort of seminal moment, a turning point for the whole generation … in that they basically saw that they existed, that there was this whole subculture of pot smoking, jazz loving, poetry, writing, painting-making people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11834515\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 282px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11834515\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/alan.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"282\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/alan.jpg 282w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/alan-160x227.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 282px) 100vw, 282px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Poet Allen Ginsberg marching with a group of pickets protesting U.S. policies in Vietnam in 1963. \u003ccite>(San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While that whole countercultural thing is happening, discrimination in the South created a great migration of Black Americans to the Bay Area and other parts of California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They were not run of the mill. These were the talented tenth, the best of the best. They came to the West Coast and it liberalized the Bay Area because it diversified it,” said USF political science professor James Taylor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11834511\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 497px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11834511\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/MOR-0681.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"497\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/MOR-0681.jpg 497w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/MOR-0681-160x129.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 497px) 100vw, 497px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jazz musician Dizzy Gillespie with Republican Mayor George Christopher. \u003ccite>(San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Taylor says you can’t talk about the Bay Area’s changing politics without mentioning the jazz scene that developed in the city’s Fillmore District. And the conductor of that cacophony of liberalization — that guy named Phillip Burton.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Burton Builds a Liberal Movement as Republicans Migrate Right\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In the 1960s Phillip Burton, a gruff, plain spoken and passionate political strategist, begins pulling together a liberal movement involving a wide range of groups — including labor unions, Black people and gay folks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Although Burton’s name does not get mentioned as regularly as it used to. It hangs over the city because it set the foundation for what the power establishment in the city is right now, which is mainstream liberalism,” Taylor says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Phil Burton helped Willie Brown, a young defense lawyer whose clients included prostitutes and pimps, get elected to the State Assembly in 1964.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That same year Republicans held their national convention at the Cow Palace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11834514\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 475px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11834514\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/protesters.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"475\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/protesters.jpg 475w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/protesters-160x135.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 475px) 100vw, 475px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Civil rights demonstrators blocked the an exit at the Cow Palace during the Republican National Convention in 1964. \u003ccite>(San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>There was a split between two wings of the party, with the more liberal segment supporting civil rights, while Sen. Barry Goldwater’s camp opposing it. Goldwater won out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He ultimately lost California and the nation to Lyndon B. Johnson in a landslide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By that time Democrats had almost 60% of registered voters in the nine-county Bay Area, compared to 40% for Republicans. There were still plenty of Republicans representing the Bay Area in Congress and the state legislature. But as Willie Brown notes, they were a different kind of Republican than the ones we think of today, especially in places like Marin County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And it was not conservative, but it was Republican, period. It was traditional Republicans rather than the kind that Goldwater advocated,” Brown says, adding that at that point there weren’t huge partisan differences on the major issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Things like education, infrastructure or pollution — all those things were merged,” Brown says, meaning the two parties largely agreed or had modest disagreements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But social issues that would come to divide Democrats and Republicans more sharply were becoming more evident.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Hippies Come to Town as Burton’s Influence Grows\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In 1967, thousands of young people from all over the country — hippies they were called — converged on Golden Gate Park and the Haight Ashbury neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The music, sex and drugs attracted a lot of free-spirited young people to San Francisco, and some stuck to channel their energy into causes like the environment and the women’s movement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It wasn’t any political party … It was activists creating the opportunity. And many of the people who embraced that early just happened have already been registered as Democrats,” said Willie Brown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When San Francisco Mayor Joe Alioto went to the Democratic convention in Chicago in 1968 to introduced the party’s nominee, there was a lot of booing from Democrats opposed to the war. And representing the party’s anti-war faction? Congressman Phillip Burton.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That progressive strain in the Bay Area, especially in San Francisco and Oakland, was became known as the Burton Machine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Burton machine was an assembly of people who shared what I’m calling in our discussion here, the cultural ideology of San Francisco, which they turned into politics,” said Agnos, who was part of that machine. “They brought together an assembly of people, activist volunteers, Civil Rights Act, all of that. And they hung together with a loyalty because of their common commitment to the issues that they all believed in.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1974, the Burton Machine helped elect State Senator George Moscone as mayor of San Francisco. It ushered in a progressive era in the city which included the election of the first openly gay supervisor, Harvey Milk. It all came crashing down in 1978 when Moscone and Milk were murdered at City Hall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11834516\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 497px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11834516\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/AAZ-0263.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"497\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/AAZ-0263.jpg 497w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/AAZ-0263-160x129.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 497px) 100vw, 497px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A crowd gathers at City Hall after the murders of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. \u003ccite>(San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>The Birth of “San Francisco Democrats”\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>After the assassinations, Dianne Feinstein set out to boost the city’s image by hosting the Democratic National Convention in 1984.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Feinstein was on the cover of Time Magazine as one of two women being considered to be former Vice President Walter Mondale’s running mate. As it turned out the other woman on the cover — Geraldine Ferraro — was picked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Besides Ferraro, the first woman on a major party ticket, the talk of the convention was the keynote speech of New York Governor Mario Cuomo, who belittled President Reagan’s vision of America.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/kOdIqKsv624'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/kOdIqKsv624'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Out of that convention came a phrase that came to symbolize liberals: “San Francisco Democrats.” It was used by Republicans as shorthand for extreme and liberal … anti-war, pro-gay rights and supporting a woman’s access to an abortion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By then, the Bay Area had moved solidly to the left. The last Bay Area county carried by a Republican presidential candidate was Napa, carried by George Bush in 1988. Bill Clinton carried the state in 1992 and since then, it’s been sea of blue.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>National GOP Moves Further Right\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Duf Sundheim was chair of the California GOP when Arnold Schwarzenegger was governor. He says the 1990s were when Republicans fell off the cliff. Polling showed when California voters were asked who they thought of when they thought of Republican, most said GOP firebrand Newt Gingrich.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And we asked them what their view was of a California Democrat. It was Bill Clinton. And it was very clear that people identified much more closely with Bill Clinton than they did with Newt Gingrich,” Sundheim said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soon the national Republican party realized California was a lost cause.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Once there was a sense that we couldn’t hold on to California, we couldn’t hold on to New England, then those more conservative views came to dominate the Republican Party. And more liberal areas like the Bay Area really went heavily Democratic,” Sundheim said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By then issues like immigration, gun control, gay rights and abortion were front and center. Sundheim remembers how hard it became to raise money from Bay Area corporations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The CEO would say, look, Duf, I’d love to write a check to the Republican Party, but if my wife ever sees that I write a check to the anti-abortion party, I’m gonna get divorced.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By 2001 there was just one Republican congressman from the Bay Area, moderate Tom Campbell. And the number of Bay Area Republicans in Sacramento was shrinking fast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The last Republican to represent the region in Sacramento was Catharine Baker, who won an Assembly seat in the East Bay in 2014.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I was in the legislature, I had a 100% score from Howard Jarvis and the California Taxpayers Association for my fiscal discipline,” Baker said recently. “The same year I had a 100% rating from Equality California and Planned Parenthood. That’s just the kind of Republican I was and continue to be.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baker sided with Democrats on issues like housing, LGBT rights and the environment. But by 2018, having that “R” next to her name was a scarlet letter. And she lost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would say 80% of the feedback we receive is ‘I know who you are. I like what you do and how you vote. But I cannot vote for a Republican.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today the entire Bay Area delegations to Sacramento and Washington are all Democrats. Registered Democrats far outnumber Republicans — who are essentially a third party now — there are now more voters registered no party preference than Republican. To Democrats, that’s a complete victory. Catharine Baker sees it differently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think all the challenges that face our communities and California are best solved by both parties being in the room, even when you don’t have to have the votes of both parties,” Baker said. “You have longer lasting, better solutions. And that’s what we really need, not just now, but in the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s hard to see Republicans making a comeback in California, let alone the liberal Bay Area any time soon, especially after four years of Donald Trump and his enduring impact on the Republican party nationwide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "california-delegation-nominates-biden-for-president-touts-environmental-justice",
"title": "California Delegation Nominates Biden for President, Touts Environmental Justice",
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"headTitle": "California Delegation Nominates Biden for President, Touts Environmental Justice | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Standing in front of lapping waves and beachgoers at Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro, Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, and Los Angeles Supervisor Hilda Solis represented California virtually in the roll call to nominate Joe Biden at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lee and Solis, two of California’s co-chairs to the national convention, touted Biden’s commitment to environmental justice as part of a “Roll Call Across America,” that featured nominating videos from across the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Joe Biden’s plan to crack down on polluters to protect our air and water is about environmental justice and economic justice,” said Lee. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pair, appearing to stand physically distanced in the sand, announced California’s award of 263 delegates for Biden, and 231 delegates for Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. Sanders won California’s March primary but Biden picked up the lion’s share of the state’s unpledged delegates, which include state party leaders and officeholders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the Democratic primary campaign, Solis backed Biden, while Lee supported California Senator Kamala Harris.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rep. Ro Khanna of Fremont, the third co-chair of the California delegation and a supporter of Bernie Sanders, did not participate in the roll call.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Solis, the former Secretary of Labor, was an \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11828270/hilda-solis-on-her-union-roots-environmental-justice-fights-and-bidens-pitch-to-latino-voters\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">early pioneer in the environmental justice movement\u003c/a> — pushing for laws to mitigate the impacts that polluting landfills and factories had on the predominately Latino neighborhoods she represented in the state legislature and Congress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Climate change is not a hoax, it’s real,” Solis said on Tuesday. “And communities of color have been bearing the brunt of this reality for generations.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the environmental and climate justice movements have taken hold in California, the issues have been largely absent from Biden’s own climate record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the campaign trail, Biden has \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11799776/with-california-voters-focused-on-climate-biden-touts-obama-era-energy-investments\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">touted his work\u003c/a> enacting the 2009 Recovery and Reinvestment Act, seen as a boon for clean energy investment in states including California.\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland\"]“Joe Biden’s plan to crack down on polluters to protect our air and water is about environmental justice and economic justice.”[/pullquote]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032114008855\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">studies of the stimulus\u003c/a> have found no way to track its benefits for communities of color.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Biden’s platform for president, by contrast, contains explicit goals of “righting wrongs in communities that bear the brunt of pollution.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those include a goal of identifying front-line communities and a promise that “disadvantaged communities receive 40% of overall benefits” of clean energy spending.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He will prioritize equity and bring clean energy jobs to black and brown neighborhoods,” Solis said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Biden has also promised to create an Environmental and Climate Justice division within the Department of Justice, to investigate and prosecute polluters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tuesday’s convention program also gave a platform to one of California’s rising Democratic stars: Robert Garcia, the mayor of Long Beach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Garcia appeared in the convention’s virtual keynote address, a speech traditionally reserved for the party’s young talent. This year, the segment featured seventeen speakers who wove pieces of their own stories into an endorsement of Biden and a critique of President Donald Trump.\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID=news_11833819,news_11832224,news_11831285]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“You deserve more than the constant chaos Donald Trump delivers,” Garcia said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In recent weeks, Garcia’s mother and stepfather both died of complications from COVID-19. Garcia, the first openly gay mayor in the city’s history, has posted openly about his loss, and promoted the need for vigilance against the coronavirus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We’re facing the biggest economic and health crisis in generations, because our president didn’t and still doesn’t have a plan,” he said Tuesday.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Garcia came to the United States from Peru at age five, with his mother, Gaby. He attended California State University, Long Beach, as an undergraduate, and returned to earn a doctoral degree in education. He told convention viewers on Tuesday that he has “\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">lived the frustration of paying off student loans.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The second night of the Democrats’ four-day convention also included speeches from former Secretary of State John Kerry, and Joe Biden’s wife, Dr. Jill Biden. On Wednesday night of the convention, Sen. Kamala Harris will introduce herself to the nation as Biden’s running mate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Standing in front of lapping waves and beachgoers at Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro, Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, and Los Angeles Supervisor Hilda Solis represented California virtually in the roll call to nominate Joe Biden at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lee and Solis, two of California’s co-chairs to the national convention, touted Biden’s commitment to environmental justice as part of a “Roll Call Across America,” that featured nominating videos from across the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Joe Biden’s plan to crack down on polluters to protect our air and water is about environmental justice and economic justice,” said Lee. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pair, appearing to stand physically distanced in the sand, announced California’s award of 263 delegates for Biden, and 231 delegates for Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. Sanders won California’s March primary but Biden picked up the lion’s share of the state’s unpledged delegates, which include state party leaders and officeholders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the Democratic primary campaign, Solis backed Biden, while Lee supported California Senator Kamala Harris.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032114008855\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">studies of the stimulus\u003c/a> have found no way to track its benefits for communities of color.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Biden’s platform for president, by contrast, contains explicit goals of “righting wrongs in communities that bear the brunt of pollution.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those include a goal of identifying front-line communities and a promise that “disadvantaged communities receive 40% of overall benefits” of clean energy spending.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He will prioritize equity and bring clean energy jobs to black and brown neighborhoods,” Solis said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Biden has also promised to create an Environmental and Climate Justice division within the Department of Justice, to investigate and prosecute polluters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tuesday’s convention program also gave a platform to one of California’s rising Democratic stars: Robert Garcia, the mayor of Long Beach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Garcia appeared in the convention’s virtual keynote address, a speech traditionally reserved for the party’s young talent. This year, the segment featured seventeen speakers who wove pieces of their own stories into an endorsement of Biden and a critique of President Donald Trump.\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“You deserve more than the constant chaos Donald Trump delivers,” Garcia said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In recent weeks, Garcia’s mother and stepfather both died of complications from COVID-19. Garcia, the first openly gay mayor in the city’s history, has posted openly about his loss, and promoted the need for vigilance against the coronavirus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We’re facing the biggest economic and health crisis in generations, because our president didn’t and still doesn’t have a plan,” he said Tuesday.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Garcia came to the United States from Peru at age five, with his mother, Gaby. He attended California State University, Long Beach, as an undergraduate, and returned to earn a doctoral degree in education. He told convention viewers on Tuesday that he has “\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">lived the frustration of paying off student loans.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The second night of the Democrats’ four-day convention also included speeches from former Secretary of State John Kerry, and Joe Biden’s wife, Dr. Jill Biden. On Wednesday night of the convention, Sen. Kamala Harris will introduce herself to the nation as Biden’s running mate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has released 15 years of tax returns, including her returns for 2018, and the California senator reports that she and her husband had a federal tax bill of about $700,000 on an adjusted gross joint income of about $1.9 million last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The documents released Sunday provide the fullest picture of her finances as she pursues a White House bid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harris reported an income of about $157,000 in 2018 from her job as a senator, as well as about $320,000 in net income as a writer; a book she wrote was published earlier this year. Her husband, Doug Emhoff, earned about $1.5 million working as an attorney.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harris is the latest \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11714733/kamala-harris-announces-bid-for-presidency-in-2020\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Democratic presidential contender\u003c/a> to release her taxes. President Donald Trump has continued to refuse to release his since the 2016 presidential campaign, when he became the first nominee in decades to buck the tradition of disclosure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>House Democrats are pressing for access to Trump's tax returns, which would give lawmakers far greater insight into the president's business dealings and potential conflicts of interest, as they exercise their oversight role.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harris and her husband reporting giving a small portion of their income — often about 1% to 3% a year — to charitable causes. Harris reported no charitable contributions some years when she was California's attorney general.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Democrats who are running for president in 2020 have released their tax returns to varying degrees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='forum_2010101870158,news_11729791,news_11732213' label='more on presidential run']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York released her 2018 tax return in late March and urged her colleagues to do the same. She was the first Democratic candidate to do so. Gillibrand has released her returns annually since 2012. That year, she released her returns dating back to 2007.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts released a decade of her tax returns, as well as her 2018 returns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar this month released 12 years of tax returns, dating to 2006, when she first became a candidate for federal office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who released just one year of tax returns when he ran for president in 2016, said more than a month ago that he would release a decade's worth of returns. He and his campaign have said they will release his tax returns by Monday's tax filing deadline.\u003cbr>\n___\u003cbr>\nSuderman reported from Richmond, Virginia, and Braun from Washington.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The Democrats who are also running for president in 2020 and have released their tax returns include Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has released 15 years of tax returns, including her returns for 2018, and the California senator reports that she and her husband had a federal tax bill of about $700,000 on an adjusted gross joint income of about $1.9 million last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The documents released Sunday provide the fullest picture of her finances as she pursues a White House bid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harris reported an income of about $157,000 in 2018 from her job as a senator, as well as about $320,000 in net income as a writer; a book she wrote was published earlier this year. Her husband, Doug Emhoff, earned about $1.5 million working as an attorney.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harris is the latest \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11714733/kamala-harris-announces-bid-for-presidency-in-2020\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Democratic presidential contender\u003c/a> to release her taxes. President Donald Trump has continued to refuse to release his since the 2016 presidential campaign, when he became the first nominee in decades to buck the tradition of disclosure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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}
},
"baycurious": {
"id": "baycurious",
"title": "Bay Curious",
"tagline": "Exploring the Bay Area, one question at a time",
"info": "KQED’s new podcast, Bay Curious, gets to the bottom of the mysteries — both profound and peculiar — that give the Bay Area its unique identity. And we’ll do it with your help! You ask the questions. You decide what Bay Curious investigates. And you join us on the journey to find the answers.",
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"order": 3
},
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},
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"info": "The day's top stories from BBC News compiled twice daily in the week, once at weekends.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/BBC-World-Service-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"meta": {
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},
"link": "/radio/program/bbc-world-service",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/global-news-podcast/id135067274?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/BBC-World-Service-p455581/",
"rss": "https://podcasts.files.bbci.co.uk/p02nq0gn.rss"
}
},
"californiareport": {
"id": "californiareport",
"title": "The California Report",
"tagline": "California, day by day",
"info": "KQED’s statewide radio news program providing daily coverage of issues, trends and public policy decisions.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-California-Report-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareport",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 8
},
"link": "/californiareport",
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"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/26099305-72af-4542-9dde-ac1807fe36d5/kqed-s-the-california-report",
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}
},
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"title": "The California Report Magazine",
"tagline": "Your state, your stories",
"info": "Every week, The California Report Magazine takes you on a road trip for the ears: to visit the places and meet the people who make California unique. The in-depth storytelling podcast from the California Report.",
"airtime": "FRI 4:30pm-5pm, 6:30pm-7pm, 11pm-11:30pm",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareportmagazine",
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"order": 10
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM3NjkwNjk1OTAz",
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},
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"id": "city-arts",
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"info": "A one-hour radio program to hear celebrated writers, artists and thinkers address contemporary ideas and values, often discussing the creative process. Please note: tapes or transcripts are not available",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/cityartsandlecture-300x300.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.cityarts.net/",
"airtime": "SUN 1pm-2pm, TUE 10pm, WED 1am",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
"subscribe": {
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/City-Arts-and-Lectures-p692/",
"rss": "https://www.cityarts.net/feed/"
}
},
"closealltabs": {
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
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"order": 1
},
"link": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
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"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"meta": {
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},
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
"airtime": "THU 10pm, FRI 1am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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"id": "freakonomics-radio",
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"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/freakonomicsRadio.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
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"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
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},
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"id": "fresh-air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510051/podcast.xml"
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"hidden-brain": {
"id": "hidden-brain",
"title": "Hidden Brain",
"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/series/423302056/hidden-brain",
"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
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},
"how-i-built-this": {
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"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/howIBuiltThis.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this",
"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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},
"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"order": 15
},
"link": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1492194549",
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}
},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
}
},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Masters-of-Scale-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "http://mastersofscale.app.link/",
"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
"subscribe": {
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/464615685/mind-shift-podcast",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/stories-teachers-share",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
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