2016 Election: Harris for Senate

It’s certainly not every election that voters face a choice between two Democrats for a statewide race. But this year’s United States Senate race between California’s Attorney General Kamala Harris and U.S. Representative Loretta Sanchez isn’t every election.

While the board commends Sanchez’s demonstration of her dance moves at the Senate debate, we endorse Kamala Harris for U.S. Senate because of her rock-solid discipline and record as California’s attorney general.

Harris was elected as California’s first female, black and Asian-American Attorney General in 2010, and has since made a name for herself as a steady progressive in line with the state’s left-leaning ideology. Over her five years in office, she’s taken on causes ranging from same-sex marriage to recidivism rates.

One of her first major accomplishments as the state’s top attorney was brokering a deal to give California homeowners $18.4 billion worth of mortgage relief. She notably displayed her negotiating prowess by pulling out of an earlier settlement that she said provided too much legal cover for banks and too little reparations for homeowners, ultimately brokering a better deal for Californians.

Harris reflected the same tenacity earlier this year when she won a $1.1 billion settlement against Corinthian Colleges, a for-profit college operator faulted for misleading advertising and unlawful debt collection practices. The attorney general’s office has since opened a website for affected students to collect reparations.

Harris has also been on the front lines of law enforcement and prison issues. As San Francisco district attorney, she started the “Back on Track” program to reduce recidivism rates for nonviolent drug traffickers by providing them job and life skills training. Although it was criticized for admitting undocumented immigrants, the program has been a remarkable success and has been used as a model for other programs across the country, including the California Department of Justice’s current iteration of the program. In addition, her office launched the “Open Justice” initiative last year to provide more transparency for the state’s justice system.

Sanchez certainly seems like a qualified candidate for the office, but she is gaffe-prone and simply lacks the caution and poise needed to effectively represent California’s interests in the Senate. Harris, on the other hand, has those qualities.

Given her record in the courtroom and in the state, it’s easy to envision a Senator Harris standing up for Californians and demanding accountability from Washington’s politicians, lobbyists and business people, and she earns this board’s full endorsement.

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