The Real Kameala Harris – Smoke and Mirrors Part One

The Law School Years

Her parents were well connected with academia, with her father being a Marxist economics professor at Stanford University and her mother was a well known research scientist. Obviously, education was important. She went to Howard University, a traditionally black college, even though mother was from India and her father from Jamaica.

She wanted to go to law school, but it would appear that she could not get into Hastings School of Law without the help of affirmative action based on race and gender. Kamela was part of the Legal Education Opportunity Program (LEOP). As a minority student in the LEOP was getting first-rate tutorial assistance.

I know that the California Bar Exam is one of, if not the hardest, bar exam in the United States. The passing rate for the July 1988 Bar Exam, when Kamala took the exam, was 52..8 percent. Hastings Law School passing rate was over 81 percent. With all of this additional help, she still failed the California Bar Exam on her first attempt. When I took the California Bar Exam in February 2001, the pass rate was 37.3 percent. Although I did not have the kind of additional help provided to Kameala, I passed on my first attempt. After she passed the February 1989 exam, she went on to her next set of smoke and mirrors.

Her Alameda County DA Job

Kamala had been offered a job with the Alameda County District Attorney’s office after she graduated from law school, but before the Bar Exam. Although she failed the Exam on her first attempt, they hired her anyway. Obviously her gender and race was an important factor in that decision, even if she couldn’t practice law. After law school, she became a deputy district attorney in the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office from 1990-98. In that capacity, she was not able to choose which cases she would prosecute. The cases were assigned to her, rather than her choosing what cases needed to be pursued. Basically, she was required to follow the lead of her superiors.

It is during this period that she met Willie Brown (no discussion of her sexual exploits with him here). Brown ran the California Assembly and was one of the most powerful politicians in California and controlled the Democratic Machine in a way that would make the politicians in Chicago jealous. He was able to pull some levers that got Kamala appointed to commissions or boards, which were basically part-time, but that paid her around $100k per year, on top of her $100k salary with Alameda County. These were positions that did not require approval by the legislature. The money was rolling in.

While she as working in the Alameda County DA’s office, she specialized in prosecuting child sexual assault cases. That becomes an interesting fact that changed when she became the DA in San Francisco, which will be the topic of Part Two. After Brown won the election to be mayor of San Francisco, the romantic relationship ended. That was not the end of his help to her.

Watch for Part two in a few days. Share with your friends.

Ken Koenen