Kamala Harris wins nomination in California attorney general race
By Arun Kumar, IANSWednesday, June 9, 2010
WASHINGTON - Daughter of an Indian mother and an African American father, San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris has won the Democratic primary for attorney general of California.
Harris easily outdistanced her main rival, Facebook executive Chris Kelly, and five other candidates in Tuesday’s primary. Kelly had sunk more than $12 million into the campaign.
“We can be tough and we can be smart,” Harris told KCBS, a local TV station. “Right now, there are a bunch of Texas oil companies trying to put their fingers in California. I’m here to say, I will not let that happen without a fight.”
Harris will face Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley in the general election in November to replace Democrat Jerry Brown, who is running for governor.
Harris, 45, was elected San Francisco district attorney in 2003, becoming the county’s first female district attorney and the first coloured woman elected district attorney in California. She was re-elected in 2007.
Harris is the daughter of Shyamala Gopalan, a Tamil Brahmin, and a renowned breast cancer specialist, and Donald Harris, an African American, who later became a Stanford economics professor. Harris was born in 1964. Her parents separated when Kamala was five.
Raised in Berkeley, Harris graduated from Howard University and received her law degree from Hastings College of the Law. She began her law enforcement career in 1990 as a deputy district attorney in Alameda County.
Over eight years, she has handled hundreds of serious and violent felony cases, including homicide, rape and child sexual assaults.
