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TO: All DAGA Supporters
FROM: Travis Berry
DATE: June 18, 2010
SUBJECT: Conference call with Democratic Candidate for
California Attorney General District Attorney Kamala Harris
Links:
1. http://us1.campaign-archive.com/?u=abe051504b44f0a5e420d445c&id=b318036d9d&e=a259a545aa

On June 8, 2010, California held its Democratic primary for Attorney
General, with San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris emerging as the
victor in a crowded field of fine candidates. We invite you to join Missouri
Attorney General Chris Koster to introduce District Attorney Harris to
DAGA’s members on a conference call on _Thursday, June 24, 2010 at 11:00 AM
Eastern/10:00 AM Central/9:00 AM Mountain/8:00 AM Pacific_. This is a great
opportunity to learn more about DA Harris and the political landscape of
California. Space is limited and you must RSVP to receive the dial-in
information.

We have included DA Harris’s bio and an article about the race below.

Please RSVP to Jenifer Freeman Fuller at [2]jfuller@politicalworks.net or
303.831.0100 to receive dial-in information. If you have any questions,
please do not hesitate to contact us at 303.831.0100.
Links:
2. mailto:jfuller@politicalworks.net

We look forward to speaking with you on June 24!

_[3]Kamala Harris Biography_
In December 2003, Kamala Harris was elected as the first woman District
Attorney in San Francisco's history, and as the first African American woman
and South Asian American woman in California to hold the office. She was
overwhelmingly reelected to a second term in November 2007.
Born and raised in the East Bay, Kamala is the daughter of Dr. Shyamala
Gopalan, a Tamilian breast cancer specialist who traveled to the United
States from Chennai, India to pursue her graduate studies at UC Berkeley.
After attending public schools, her strong commitment to justice and public
service led her to Howard University, America’s oldest historically black
university, and then to the University of California, Hastings College of
the Law.
Links:
3. http://www.kamalaharris.org/home

Harris has spent her entire professional life in the trenches as a courtroom
prosecutor. After graduating from U.C. Hastings College of the Law, she took
a position in the Alameda County District Attorney's Office, where she
specialized in prosecuting child sexual assault cases. As a Deputy District
Attorney she also prosecuted cases for homicide and robbery. She worked at
that office from 1990 to 1998 before going on to serve in the San Francisco
District Attorney’s Office.

In 1998, Harris was named managing attorney of the Career Criminal Unit of
the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, where she prosecuted three
strikes cases and serial felony offenders. She then served as the head of
the San Francisco City Attorney’s Division on Families and Children.
As San Francisco DA, Harris - who has been a prosecutor for nearly twenty
years - has focused intensively on fighting violent crime. She has increased
conviction rates for serious and violent offenses, expanded services to
victims of crime and their families, created new prosecution divisions
focused on child assault, public integrity and environmental crimes, and
launched innovative re-entry initiatives to prevent re-offending. To combat
one of San Francisco’s biggest challenges, gun violence, she created a gun
specialist team and implemented tough gun charging policies.

This work is paying off --- the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office has
more than doubled its trial conviction rate for gun felonies to 90 percent.
Under her leadership, the office has sent 50 percent more serious and
violent offenders to State Prison, has put more than 220 gang members behind
bars and convicted more than 1,200 domestic violence offenders. According to
the San Francisco Superior Court, the office’s overall felony conviction
rate is at its highest point in nearly 15 years.
Harris has brought much-needed consistency and innovation to the handling of
narcotics and quality-of-life crimes. Her office has tripled the number of
misdemeanor cases taken to trial, and Harris has assigned senior prosecutors
to specialize in prosecuting graffiti, vandalism and auto burglaries. She
has also launched unprecedented programs of outreach to San Francisco
communities and brought free legal clinics to immigrant neighborhoods.

District Attorney Harris is the recipient of numerous awards. California’s
largest legal newspaper, The Daily Journal, designated Harris as one of the
top 75 women litigators in California – the only elected official to receive
that honor – as well as one of the top 100 lawyers in the state. She was
recognized as a “Woman of Power” by the National Urban League and received
the Thurgood Marshall Award from the National Black Prosecutors Association.
She has been featured on the Oprah Show and in Newsweek as one of
“America’s 20 Most Powerful Women.” She was selected as one of 24 elected
leaders from throughout the country to serve as a Rodel Fellow with the
Aspen Institute. Additionally, Harris was elected to the Board of Directors
of the California District Attorneys Association and is a Vice President of
the National District Attorney’s Association.


[4]Harris wins Dem AG primary NEWS
The Bay Area Reporter - by Seth Hemmelgarn – 06/10/2010
Links:
4. http://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=4833

Bringing her trademark "smart on crime" philosophy to the state stage, San
Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris easily won the Democratic primary
for California attorney general Tuesday, June 8, beating back a stiff
challenge from former Facebook privacy chief Chris Kelly.

Now, the aim for Harris will be to defeat her Republican opponent, moderate
Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley, in November.

In the AG race, unofficial returns showed that Harris, a strong supporter of
the LGBT community, received 33.1 percent of the vote. Kelly came in a
distant second with 15.9 percent.

Cooley garnered 47.3 percent of the vote on the Republican side, preliminary
numbers indicated, which put him ahead of John Eastman, who received 34.2
percent of the vote.

Brian Brokaw, Harris's campaign manager, said over the next five months
Harris "is going to make the case that the only way to be tough on crime is
to be smart on crime."

"That means taking on the status quo of this revolving door justice system
that cycles criminals in and out of prison and into neighborhoods," he said,
as well as "zeroing in on" violent street gangs. He also referred to Harris
as "a champion for the environment" and said she will fight to support
health care reform, explaining those are among the positions that contrast
her with Cooley.

Brokaw said LGBT voters should support Harris because she's "clearly" the
only attorney general candidate "who has a long history of fighting for and
working with the LGBT community around the state. Whether it's opposing Prop
8 and aggressively prosecuting hate crimes in San Francisco, Kamala Harris
has a track record of siding with and fighting for the LGBT community,"
Brokaw said.

Like Harris, Cooley also supports marriage equality.

Cooley's campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Brokaw also noted that Cooley told San Diego Newsroom recently that current
Attorney General Jerry Brown should have defended Proposition 8 in court,
while Harris backs the position Brown took in not defending the amendment to
the state constitution that bans same-sex marriage.

SDNR quoted Cooley as saying, in part, "California's Supreme Court ruled
that [Prop 8] was constitutional, and since they ruled it is constitutional
and there are no clear and obvious unconstitutional aspects to it, the AG
should defend it as a matter of his or her oath of office."

Equality California Executive Director Geoff Kors noted the anti-gay
National Organization for Marriage's effort to defeat Cooley failed,
"showing Republican primary voters will stand up to the most anti-gay
candidates, and in that race we're fortunate to have such a champion as
Kamala Harris," said Kors, adding that the race for attorney general "will
deservedly receive a lot of attention."


Supporting the election of Democrats to the offices of Attorneys General.

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