Kamala Harris - For California Attorney General 2010

Secretary Norman Mineta Endorses Kamala Harris for Attorney General

Sec. Mineta

Secretary Norman Y. Mineta, who represented San Jose in Congress for over twenty years and served in the Cabinets of both Democratic and Republican presidents, today announced that he is supporting San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris for California Attorney General.

 

The need for political leadership that is at once visionary and practical, courageous and steady, innovative and experienced is crucial,” said Secretary Mineta, whose statement of support can be viewed in its entirety below. “I urge that voters of all philosophies, of various ideological stripes, partisan affiliation, and ethnic backgrounds pay careful attention to Kamala Harris’ record of accomplishment and her dedication to the pursuit of both order and justice. For those reasons, and others, I am happy and honored to lend my support to Kamala Harris in her campaign to become the state’s next Attorney General.”

 

“I am grateful to have earned the support of Secretary Mineta, an accomplished leader in our state and nation who has committed his life to public service,” said Harris. “I look forward to having Secretary Mineta by my side in this campaign.”

 

Norman Mineta served in Congress for over twenty years and in the Cabinets of President Bill Clinton as Secretary of Commerce and President George W. Bush as Secretary of Transportation. For almost thirty years, Mineta represented San Jose, California, first on the City Council, then as Mayor, and then from 1975 to 1995 as a Member of Congress.

 

Among his numerous accomplishments, Secretary Mineta received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the US, and the Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy, awarded for significant pubilc service of enduring value to aviation in the United States. While in Congress, he was the co-founder of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, and Chair of the National Civil Aviation Review Commission in 1999. He is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley.

 

As San Francisco’s District Attorney, Harris has used her nearly 20 years of prosecutorial experience to focus intensively on fighting violent crime.  She increased felony conviction rates, 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 initiatives to prevent re-offending.  

 

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 70 percent more serious and violent offenders to State Prison. According to the State of California Department of Justice, the office’s overall felony conviction rate is at its highest point in nearly 15 years. Due to the success of her innovative crime-fighting initiatives, Harris recently participated in the White House Conference on Gang Violence Prevention and Crime Control.

 

For more information on Harris, please visit www.KamalaHarris.org.

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Statement by the Honorable Norman Y. Mineta

Endorsing Kamala Harris for Attorney General of California

December 10, 2009

California stands at a critical crossroads as we head toward the 2010 statewide elections. Perhaps not in my lifetime have the stakes been higher than they are today. The need for political leadership that is at once visionary and practical, courageous and steady, innovative and experienced is crucial. For those reasons, and others, I am happy and honored to lend my support to Kamala Harris in her campaign to become the state’s next Attorney General.

 

Kamala’s life story, which will become familiar to Californians over the course of the next several months, is an inspiration to us all – particularly to those of us in the Asian American community who share Kamala’s heritage, whose own parents came to this country in order to seek opportunity and gain a better life: 

§  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 in California to hold the office. She was overwhelmingly reelected to a second term in November 2007. She has been a tough and capable prosecutor for over twenty years.

§  Kamala was born in Oakland, California and raised with her sister Maya in the East Bay by their mother Dr. Shyamala Gopalan, a breast cancer specialist. 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.

§  Kamala has spent her entire professional life in the trenches as a courtroom prosecutor. Her first job was 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, Kamala 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’s District Attorney, Kamala Harris has focused 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.

I know Kamala Harris as a committed public servant, I know her wonderful and impressive family, and I know her as a friend. She is exactly the kind of person---and will be the kind of elected leader---that our state of California needs so desperately at this crucial time. I urge that voters of all philosophies, of various ideological stripes, partisan affiliation, and ethnic backgrounds pay careful attention to Kamala Harris’ record of accomplishment and her dedication to the pursuit of both order and justice. When they do I have total confidence that they will vote for Kamala Harris to be California’s next Attorney General.

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