In the first political scandal of the 2020 presidential race, former San Francisco mayor and California State Assembly speaker Willie Brown admitted to having an affair with Democratic presidential hopeful Kamala Harris back in 1994 and providing her with a lucrative job on the state board.
But despite the obvious ethical dilemma presented by this relationship, Brown just can’t seem to understand what all the fuss is about.
“Sure, I dated Kamala Harris,” the former state assembly speaker admitted in a short op-ed for the San Francisco Chronicle. “So what?”
California cronyism
Brown’s relationship with Harris first made headlines back in 1994, when a Los Angeles Times report noted that the assemblyman was appointing personal companions to senior government posts. In the article, “several people at the Capitol” identify Harris as “Brown’s girlfriend,” and San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen called her “the Speaker’s new steady” in a separate op-ed from March 1994.
Harris was paid a competitive salary of $72,000 per year to work for the California Medical Assistance Commission. Thanks to Brown’s patronage, she’d spent the previous six months earning $97,088 annually in another appointed position with the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board.
While Brown was dogged by multiple allegations of political cronyism and hounded by federal investigators during his 15 years as Assembly speaker, his relationship with now-Sen. Harris (D-CA) has been catapulted to national prominence once again after his former girlfriend announced her intent to run in the 2020 presidential race.
Business as usual
Still, Brown seemed highly perturbed at having to answer questions about his relationship with the presidential contender.
“I’ve been peppered with calls from the national media about my ‘relationship’ with Kamala Harris, particularly since it became obvious that she was going to run for president,” he wrote. “Most of them, I have not returned.”
Brown’s tone-deaf response is colored by his intense familiarity with patronage politics. “Da Mayor,” as he came to be known in San Francisco, placed another ex-girlfriend on the city’s payroll, awarded contracts to campaign loyalists, and once referred to his bureaucrats as “mistresses you have to service.”
And given the depth of his misdeeds, it seems that even in retirement, Brown can’t understand how appointing a former lover to a lucrative government post is worthy of national attention.
“Yes, we dated,” he explained in his brief column published Sunday. “It was more than 20 years ago. Yes, I may have influenced her career by appointing her to two state commissions when I was Assembly speaker.”
“And I certainly helped with her first race for district attorney in San Francisco,” Brown continued. “I have also helped the careers of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Gov. Gavin Newsom, Sen. Dianne Feinstein and a host of other politicians.”
Trouble in paradise
The veteran California politician concluded his column by hinting that his relationship with Harris went sour at some point, writing: “The difference is that Harris is the only one who, after I helped her, sent word that I would be indicted if I ‘so much as jaywalked’ while she was D.A.”
But although their relationship may have been short-lived, Harris’s unethical appointment may come to haunt her in the months ahead — and there is still plenty of time before November 2020 for additional allegations of misconduct to emerge.
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