Speculation on Kamala Harris as sitting Senator announces retirement
Is it time for the US Senate to get its first-ever Indian-American memberIJ Speculation is on in right earnest that California’s Indian-American Attorney General Kamala Harris might well throw her hat into the ring following a surprise announcement by long-time Senator Barbara Boxer that she will not seek re-election next year.
While there was no immediate word from Harris, a strong supporter of President Barack Obama, several media outlets believe that all eyes are on the 50-year-old Harris —daughter of an Indian mother from Chennai (breast cancer specialist Dr Shyamala Gopalan) and a Jamaican-American father (Stanford economics professor Donald Harris).
After the 74-year-old Boxer announced her retirement, Harris, who was admitted to the California bar in 1990, issued a brief statement extolling the outgoing Senator’s public service as “a true progressive champion and a tireless advocate for California’s priorities”, but giving out no inkling of her own plans.
The US House of Representatives has had three Indian-American members to date in its long history, but not the Senate, a 100-member exclusive club that is widely regarded as the world’s most powerful upper house.
While Harris is regarded as a frontrunner, a few other key names are also doing the rounds for a much-coveted position that is opening up for the first time in more than two decades.
They include California’s lt Gov Gavin Newsom, former los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer and Representatives Adam Schiff and loretta Sanchez.
But much of the immediate commentary has centred on Harris. “I think Kamala will have a head start,” The Washington Post quoted a Democratic source as saying. The lA Weekly from los Angeles noted that Harris is “widely seen — for now anyway — as the one most likely to take the plunge”.
Congressional newspaper, The Hill, reported that Democrats are buzzing about both Harris and Newsom as early front-runners should they jump in. “If she decides to run for the Senate, she’ll likely scare off more opponents because of her profile as a female, African-American hero of the liberal base, while observers say Newsom may face a more crowded field,” the paper noted.
As for lt. Gov. Newsom, several pundits believe that he may prefer to run for Governor of California in 2018 instead of the Senate seat next year. like Harris, Newsom has not offered any clue about his own plans as he, too, issued a statement lauding Boxer as someone who has “earned a seat in the pantheon of great California leaders”.