San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Presidential bid possible as Harris’ visibility grows
America will be seeing a lot more from California Sen. Kamala Harris in the coming months, as she revs up for a possible 2020 presidential run.
It’s unlikely she’ll decide on a run until after the November midterm elections, but team Harris is making the moves, just in case.
And while Harris isn’t up there with former Vice President Joe Biden or Vermont Sen.
Bernie Sanders, being an unknown might actually work in her favor.
A July 17 Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 73 percent of likely Democratic voters believe the party should look for a fresh face to run for president in 2020.
Any serious run, however, means that Harris will need to elevate her national profile. Harris, who early on seized on the power of social media, already is spending more on Facebook ads than any other senator.
A study by researchers at New York University found that Harris spent more than $134,000 on Facebook ads from May to early July. Those ads were viewed more than 12 million times, with most of the views coming from outside of California.
Harris has a new opportunity to make a big public splash at the upcoming Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nomine Brett Kavanaugh. Viewers are likely to see a repeat performance of the hard grilling Harris gave Attorney General Jeff Sessions when he appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee last year as part of the Russian meddling investigation.
Then there’s the midterm election. Harris is using her extensive small donor list to raise $5 million for progressive organizations such as MoveOn.org and fellow Senate Democrats such as Alabama’s Doug Jones and Wisconsin’s Tammy Baldwin.
Harris will also hit the campaign trail for her Senate colleagues, taking her into important primary states.
Being a sitting senator from California — often called the ATM of the Democratic Party — also works in her favor, either as a candidate or as a power player if she decides not to run.
“Look at where Democrats get their money — it’s San Francisco, Oakland and Los Angeles — and she has ties to the money in all three of those cities,” said one Harris confidant.
If Harris does go for the gold, the January publication of her new political memoir, “The Truths We Hold: An American Journey,” could double up for a campaign as well.
It’s doubtful that Harris’ policy-driven tome on such issues as same-sex marriage and the financial crisis will match the pop phenom success of former President Barack Obama’s “Dreams of My Father.” It will, nonetheless, afford Harris the opportunity for a national book tour with appearances on network TV shows that have a broader reach than the cable news outlets where the senator is now most often seen.
Harris has yet to make any overt moves with donors, though.
“You only have one time to make the pitch, so you had better have your message ready and the message that ‘I’m in,’ ” said the Harris confidant.
Some, however, think it’s too early for the junior senator, only 21 months into her first term, to run.
“She is hinting at presidential ambitions, but I think she has to do more for the state of California than run for president,” said University of San Francisco political science Professor James Taylor.
Plus, while Harris’ progressive politics play in California, they may be a “hard sell in the heartland,” Taylor said.
“Are we really going to go from Barack Obama to Donald Trump to Kamala Harris?” he asks. “Are we really that bipolar of a country?” Who knows? Maybe.
Go east: BART’s new East Bay extension to Antioch is already rocketing off the charts.
Opened in late May at a cost of $525 million, the 10-mile link from Pittsburg to Antioch is averaging 3,800 weekday riders — well above the 2,800 BART initially estimated.
“And there likely would be even more riders, but there’s no room in the parking lot,” said BART Board Director Joel Keller, whose east Contra Costa County district includes the new station.
The 1,006-slot parking lot, which already is being restriped to allow for more than three dozen extra vehicles, is usually filled by 5:55 a.m. BART “underestimated the parking,” said Antioch Mayor Sean Wright. As a result, riders are parking all day on neighborhood streets.
Now the transit agency is moving to add 700 parking spaces on seven acres it owns adjacent to the station. But if that doesn’t do the trick, it could reopen the longstanding debate among BART directors over whether building more parking is the best way to promote the use of public transit.
Keller said he “fully supports” getting commuters out of their cars, but in this case there isn’t adequate bus service in the area.
“Wouldn’t it be better to divert people off the roads and onto transit rather than have them continue driving to the urban core?” Keller asked.
San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX-TV morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call 415-777-8815, or email matierandross@ sfchronicle.com Twitter: @matierandross