Everyone knows about the GOP primary for governor where Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner are destroying each other. But the Democratic primary for the attorney general’s office which Jerry Brown is vacating in order to run for governor has gotten pretty hot in the last week as the two main contenders, Kamala Harris and Chris Kelly slug it out in the final few days.
If you don’t know, Kamala Harris is the DA for San Francisco and Chris Kelly led the section of Facebook that dealt with privacy issues. Kamala Harris has the advantage that most of the heavy weights in the CA Democratic Party (Dianne Feinstein and Nancy Pelosi) have lined up behind Harris while Kelly has the ability to self fund by cashing in his stock options from Facebook. Hmm…sounds like another CEO who ironically lives in Palo Alto who’s running for public office this year.
To be fair and impartial, both Kelly and Harris have been hit by some very bad press this year. Kelly has been on the receiving end of public anger over the controversies that have rocked Facebook over privacy issues. While Harris has had to deal with the scandal that rocked the San Francisco crime lab where it was found a lab technician was caught using cocaine that was evidence, feral cats, and a whole bunch of other crazy stuff you have to read in order to believe.
A problem for Chris Kelly is that the privacy issues for Facebook are known throughout the country and unless you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, you wouldn’t of ever heard about the crime lab scandal. Unless you’ve seen a Chris Kelly attack ad.
When it came to the negative ads, Kelly struck first with this ad attacking Harris over the crime lab scandal and calling her an incompetent DA. Kelly was called out by the media when his ad falsely claimed that San Francisco had the highest homicide and robbery rates in the state.
Kamala Harris struck back with an ad featuring positive quotes from newspapers that endorsed her and quoting the Chief of the SFPD who called Kelly’s ad false. Her ad then calls Chris Kelly “not qualified” and “a rookie.” She then says the only “experience” Chris Kelly had was designing the privacy policy at Facebook that has come under fire recently.
Harris recently released an ad talking about her plan to make surfing the internet safer for children. Towards the end of the ad she takes a subtle dig at Chris Kelly by saying Facebook isn’t doing enough to keep children safe.
Just tonight, Chris Kelly is going up with an ad featuring retired San Francisco cops badmouthing Kamala Harris. They accuse her of turning the city’s legal system into a revolving door for career criminals and illegal immigrants. It would be a powerful ad, if Chris Kelly didn’t pay the officers to badmouth Harris on TV. Kind of makes you wonder if Chris Kelly offered the cops a little extra if they fudged the truth a little bit.
The Harris camp quickly responded with this:
Harris spokesman Brian Brokaw called the ad a “desperate atack from a panicking candidate who has spent $12 million and has nothing to show for it 4 days before election day.” He noted that Harris has recieved endorssements from SF Police Chief George Gascon, Sheriff Mike Hennessey and “law enforcement leaders around the state.”
I really like how you talked about this race. I believe not enough people are following it but it definitely is a race to watch with alot of attacking. I like how Kamala is touting her record as SF District Attorney. She also reduced the rate of repeat offenders from 54% to 10% so she is definitely effective. Also, I’m a bit worried about Kamala for this reason: her base is in the Bay Area but the Bay Area has heard about the crime lab while the rest of the state has not. Kelly is an LA guy so he should do well there. Kamala has to shore up her base but when I did some phonebanking for her in the Bay Area, there were some people who were not voting for her.
This week. I was in a 7-11 so I couldn’t tell you what station it was, but the ad itself was pretty decent, as far as it went.
Some good (orchestral-ish?) music along with an announcer talking about how, like Obama (but a lady!), she’d break barriers. (tying yourself to Obama in CA Dem primary = smart) And then talking about how she was tough AND smart on crime, not just talking tough, but reducing recidivism impressively. That made my bleeding heart perk up my ears.
I’ve been trying to decide whether to vote for one of the no-chance assemblymembers, or Harris, but I’m starting to lean Harris because I’m worried about Kelly. Also, the more I see of her, the more I like her….that is a good sign.
I also LOVE Harris’ dig on Facebook. And Kelly’s last ad…that is so dickish I could see it backfiring.
I know LA City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo and a couple state Assemblymen (Nava and Lieu, I think) are running. What are they like? Do they not have any chances?
I’m a fan of Ted Lieu. He is from a Moderatish district and is amiable and hard for Republicans to attack.
Meanwhile, as far as I can tell, his politics are pretty progressive. He’s for gay marriage. He sponsored some legislation to prevent foreclosures. He is a young up-and-comer with a military record and a nice family.
If the GOP nominates LA DA Steve Cooley, Dems will need their strongest candidate.
I am VERY worried about Karmala Harris’ ability to survive aggressive attacks from the GOP in the general election. Meanwhile, Kelly seems like a doofus with Fiorina-level political credentials.
But most people think that its a Harris-Kelly race, so I guess I’m wasting my vote.