Kamala Devi Harris, a friend of US president Barack Obama, stands a good chance to make it as California’s attorney-general. The San Francisco district attorney has the backing of Hollywood actor Sean Penn, Universal Studios president Ron Meyer and filmmaker Brett Ratner, and announced this week that she raised $1.2 million in the first half of 2009 to fund her campaign.
According to the media, Harris’ appeal is similar to Obama’s: she has a “compelling life story and trails innovative ideas the way some women do perfume”. Like Obama, Harris, 44, is a product of today’s multiracial, mobile, fragmented America. Her competitors for the Democratic nomination are Assemblymen Pedro Nava and Alberto Torrico, and Facebook executive Chris Kelly.
An early Obama ally, Harris campaigned across the country for him and currently serves on influential policymaking committees of the Democratic National Committee. A brilliant prosecutor, Harris became San Francisco’s first female district attorney in 2003. Also, her biracial background makes her the state’s first black -- and the nation’s first Indian American -- district attorney. In 2007, she was re-elected without opposition.
“She is a trailblazer. Her life story and vision for reforming California’s criminal justice system resonates with not only Hollywood, but also with Californians from all walks of life,” said Harris’s campaign manager Brian Brokaw. Harris’s backers point to her stellar record of increasing conviction rates to 67% and running a tight ship.
Harris, the San Francisco Examiner reported on Monday, is inspiring a film about to go into production this summer in Los Angeles. The film is to star Mallika Sherawat, who, incidentally, is in San Francisco visiting Twitter’s headquarters. The actress,
in a tweet, has written: “I’ll be ‘shadowing’ her (Harris) to research my new film role.
I play Aretha Gupta, inspired by Kamala.”
