Column: Kamala Harris always fearless when opportunity arises
LA TimesKamala Harris is one step from becoming America’s first female president because she has always had the drive and guts to risk seeking a higher office. “Political graveyards are full of people who wait,” says Ace Smith, chief strategist for Harris’ successful campaigns for attorney general and the Senate. “Sometimes you never know how things are going to break.” For example: In Harris’ race for attorney general, she was the underdog against Republican frontrunner Steve Cooley, a three-term Los Angeles County district attorney. But during the campaign’s lone debate, Times reporter Jack Leonard asked Cooley whether he planned to “double-dip” by taking both his district attorney’s pension and attorney general salary — a total of $425,000 annually. “She’s run as an underdog before and she’s used to being underestimated,” says Dan Morain, a former Times reporter who wrote a very readable 2020 Harris biography, “Kamala’s Way: An American Life.” “She runs harder and runs faster than her opponents.