The Dem 2020 horse race is barely getting started and already it’s getting very weird.
What does one make of Willie Brown, Senator Kamala Harris’ sugar daddy resurfacing with a mini op-ed, whose relevant part is barely long enough to be a quote titled, “Sure, I dated Kamala Harris. So what?”
Why did the San Francisco Chronicle even decide to run this?
Yes, we dated. It was more than 20 years ago. Yes, I may have influenced her career by appointing her to two state commissions when I was Assembly speaker.
Okay then.
It’s a wonderful combination of brashness and the lawyerly defensiveness of a career politician. That’s the “I may have” part.
The two positions Brown appointed Harris to—on the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board and the California Medical Assistance Commission—paid handsomely. SF Weekly reported back in 2003 that the two positions earned her more than $400,000 over five years.
Harris defended her decision to take the posts Brown got for her in her 2003 interview with SF Weekly despite her lack of experience.
“Whether you agree or disagree with the system, I did the work,” she said. “I brought a level of life knowledge and common sense to the jobs.”
Brown also reportedly gifted Harris with a BMW in 1994. He is 31 years older than Harris.
Harris paid her dues. Just not the way we want politicians to pay them.
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