Kamala Harris in 2018 CA Senate race
On Budget & Economy:
Prosecuted fewer foreclosure fraud cases than smaller states
Harris was a firm proponent of civil asset forfeiture, sponsoring a bill to allow prosecutors to seize profits before charges were even filed. Years before that, she opposed AB 639, a bill that aimed to reform asset forfeiture.
The bill easily cleared the state assembly but was soon scuttled by a united wall of opposition from law enforcement, with whom Harris was united.
Her Mortgage Fraud Strike Force opened in 2011, employing twenty-five lawyers and investigators with a budget of more than $2 million to go after foreclosure fraud. The strike force managed to prosecute just ten cases in three years, an
East Bay Express investigation in 2014 found. It had filed fewer lawsuits than attorneys general in smaller states with fewer victims, and even fewer than some county district attorneys. Yet California led the country in terms of such scam operations.
Source: Jacobin Magazine on 2018 California Senate race
Aug 10, 2017
On Corporations:
Tough stance on mortgage lenders fell short
In September 2011, Harris pulled California out of nationwide mortgage settlement talks with the five biggest mortgage servicers. The deal Harris got for California was ultimately much better. It provided $18.4 billion in debt relief and $2 billion in
other financial assistance, as well as incentives for relief to center on the hardest hit counties. The banks had originally only offered California, the state hardest hit by the housing crisis and fraud, $2-4 billion.
Nonetheless, the settlement was woefully inadequate. In terms of direct financial relief, underwater homeowners--weighed down by average debt of close to
$65,000 each--received around $1,500 to $2,000 each. just 84,102 California families had any mortgage debt forgiven--far short of the 250,000 originally predicted.
Source: Jacobin Magazine on 2018 California Senate race
Aug 10, 2017
On Crime:
Focus on helping non-violent young offenders
Harris supported reforming California's three-strikes law, refrained from seeking life sentences for criminals who committed nonviolent "third strikes," and in 2004 instituted the Back on Track program, which put first-time offenders between
ages eighteen and twenty-four into eighteen-month-long city college apprentice programs, which contributed to the city's recidivism rates dropping from 54 percent to 10 percent in six years.
"Getting Smart on Crime does not mean reducing sentences or punishments for crimes," she explains in her book. As her website outlines, "Kamala believes that
we must maintain a relentless focus on reducing violence and aggressively prosecuting violent criminals." Fittingly, when she became San Francisco DA, the felony conviction rate rose from 52 percent to 67 percent in three years.
Source: Jacobin Magazine on 2018 California Senate race
Aug 10, 2017
On Crime:
Defied pressure for death penalty for cop killer
The first test of Harris's principles came in 2004, after she was elected as San Francisco's district attorney. Harris defied a united chorus of voices--from the city's police chief and police rank and file, to Democratic senator
Dianne Feinstein--calling for the death penalty for a twenty-one-year-old who killed an undercover police officer. During the officer's funeral, 2000 officers gave Feinstein a standing ovation after she criticized Harris, who was also at the funeral.
Source: Jacobin Magazine on 2018 California Senate race
Aug 10, 2017
On Environment:
Prosecuted polluters for illegal dumping and air pollution
Harris also has a strong history of going after polluters. As district attorney, she created San Francisco's first Environmental Justice Unit and went after cases involving illegal dumping and air pollution. As attorney general, she went after companies
including BP, Chevron, Comcast, Cosco Busan, ExxonMobil, and South California Gas Company, with Cosco Busan agreeing to the largest settlement of its kind for its 2007 spill in the San Francisco Bay.
Source: Jacobin Magazine on 2018 California Senate race
Aug 10, 2017
On Families & Children:
Punish parents of chronically truant kids
She championed a statewide version of an anti-truancy law she had put in place in San Francisco that threatened parents of chronically truant children with as much as a $2,000 fine and a year in jail. By Oct. 2012, two mothers had been imprisoned
under the law. "We are putting parents on notice," she said in her inaugural speech as attorney general. "If you fail in your responsibility to your kids, we are going to work to make sure you face the full force and consequences of the law."
Source: Jacobin Magazine on 2018 California Senate race
Aug 10, 2017
On Health Care:
Require pharmaceutical companies to allow generics
She filed a friend-of-the-court brief signed by thirty-one other state attorneys general in 2011 in a
Supreme Court case looking to end the practice of drug companies paying competitors to keep generic versions of their drugs off the market.
Source: Jacobin Magazine on 2018 California Senate race
Aug 10, 2017
Page last updated: Apr 07, 2019