Newsletter: That time we endorsed the Republican over Kamala Harris

Good morning. I’m Paul Thornton, and it is Saturday, July 27. I’m back after three weeks in Norway and Italy — did I miss anything?

I ask that question, of course, with tongue firmly in cheek. The last four weeks have been some of the most consequential, earth-shattering days in American presidential politics, and it was impossible to escape the news while on vacation. From Rome, I wrote about what it felt like watching all this unfold from stable social democracies and answering questions from concerned relatives in Norway — and that was before President Biden dropped out of the race and Vice President Kamala Harris took his place as the leading Democratic presidential candidate.

As for Harris, she has a long history in California — and as a result, The Times’ editorial board has a long history covering her. As she mentioned on the campaign trail, Harris served as attorney general of California and the San Francisco district attorney before she became a U.S. senator in 2016.

Which got me wondering: Did she earn the board’s endorsement in 2010, when she narrowly won her race for attorney general against Steve Cooley, the Republican (you read that right) district attorney of Los Angeles County? Well, no, she didn’t. Cooley, the board argued, had demonstrated effective management of his unwieldy office in a time of crisis locally, and for the state attorney general political ideology matters less than managerial competence. The Republican got the endorsement in 2010, but if former President Trump’s campaign has any intention of using that against its opponent now, it’ll have to skip over the parts where Harris was effusively praised:

“On these issues, Harris is right where Cooley is wrong. She supports the healthcare law and same-sex marriage. She opposes the death penalty, though she would enforce and defend it as attorney general. Moreover, Harris is a smart, dynamic and forward-thinking leader whose bright future we happily anticipate. She sees a potential for the attorney general’s office that is bigger and more comprehensive than the office that exists today, one that addresses issues such as truancy and criminal recidivism, that attacks crime at a causal level, not just a reactive one. She is a thinker, and a good one.”

That’s about as positive of a non-endorsement as I’ve seen. And with Harris running for president, it would seem we’re in the “bright future” that the board anticipated — though, I’d argue, things are little more dim than was hoped, what with the survival of American democracy on the line.

What Kamala Harris’ run for California attorney general can tell us about this campaign. Former L.A. Times reporter Dan Morain recalls Harris as a “tough, formidable, disciplined” campaigner during her 2010 attorney general run, a very close race against Cooley. Also, find in Morain’s fascinating piece a mention of pre-insurrectionist John Eastman, a marginal figure in California politics before he had Trump’s ear.

Are Asian American voters loyal to Democrats or shifting Republican? Historian James Zarsadiaz looks at the shifting political landscape for Asian Americans, who have a history of activism in the Republican Party going back to the 1950s. He notes that Democrats won Asian American voters by smaller margins in 2020 and 2022 than in past elections, and we’ll see if that trend continues with Harris, an Asian American, at the top of her party’s ticket.

Inglewood needs the people mover, Rep. Waters. SoFi Stadium, the Kia Forum and the brand new Intuit Dome — all in Inglewood — will host 400 events next year, attracting up to 5 million visitors. Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts says the crushing car traffic that comes with these events shows the need for a dedicated people mover connecting the three venues to the K Line, so Rep. Maxine Waters’ recent effort to undermine federal funding for the project is surprising and unwelcome.

Southern Californians shaped the nation’s biggest political problems. We can solve them too. Historian James Tejani is bullish about our ability to address much of what’s wrong in America, writing that the region is “the opportune place to resolve these dilemmas of history and to lead the U.S. forward, whether by policy experimentation or new principles for how wealth might be built, sustained and shared. Shaping the nation’s better future will involve tough choices. It certainly will take visionaries and daring. Yet that, too, is a legacy of Southern California’s past, one ready to be reclaimed.”

More from opinion

From our columnists

• LZ Granderson: As president, Harris would be a “first” in so many ways. She can handle it

From guest contributors

• The summer of ’82 changed sci-fi cinema forever
• After the Trump shooting, Congress needs to keep the peace
• Elon Musk and Peter Thiel backed Trump and Vance. What would their ticket do for tech?

From the Editorial Board

• Don’t be fooled by Trump’s and Republicans’ abortion myths
• California’s cannabis regulator is failing the legal marijuana market

Letters to the Editor

• No, Republicans, replacing Biden with Harris is nothing like the Jan. 6 mob
• These governors would easily beat Trump. Why Kamala Harris and not them?
• Don’t buy the corporate lie that CEQA hurts California’s Latinos