Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) is taking advantage of her California roots, planning two major fundraisers this weekend likely to feature entertainment industry heavyweights.
According to a Wednesday Variety report, Harris has been taking advantage of her early announcement to win over Hollywood bigwigs and their deep pockets.
She will also likely benefit from the decision of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (D) to sit out the race, thinning the number of Californians running (Rep. Eric Swalwell is still making his decision).
Great launch for Harris. She has definitely elevated herself into a top tier candidate, which is a big accomplishment for someone who isn’t as well known as other potential candidates. One other thing is that I believe Harris has a shot at a much bigger coalition than either Obama, Bill Clinton or Hillary Clinton had in their primary runs to the nominations. There really is no voter group that is closed off to her. I can see her getting a healthy percentage of support across just about any demographic that makes up the primary electorate.
If she were to win the CA primary with 55% or 60% of the vote, she’d net somewhere between 220 and 250 pledged delegates and probably a big margin over the next highest finisher in a split field. If she also wins 1 or 2 of the first 4 contests, this will make her pretty tough to beat.
The one challenge I think she has is to address the health care issue more clearly. Her polling tells her to lead with an embrace of M4A, but she has to also deal with the cost and viability issues and needs to settle in on Medi Buy in as a first step. She has hinted at this, as has Warren (and even Bernie) but it’s not clear as yet. She has time to refine that position and sell the m4a crowd on the idea that she is both committed to the goal while assuring the more pro ACA 2.0 crowd (which I’m in) that she’ll take a pragmatic approach to getting there.
I don’t think it will be that hard to do, and it’s more of an issue for the general election than the primaries as so many of the candidates are so rhetorically close to one another.
Best be careful out there in Stalinist Socialist Paradise Hollywood, Comrade Kamala! A-list celebrity and rectal thespian James Woods might send you another nasty Tweet, which may leave a fragile little lady like you in a puddle of tears!
I’m beginning to like a Harris / O’Rourke ticket. No where near deciding for sure, but I like thinking about this one.
I do think Beto is going to run. Obama folks are waiting in the wings to line up behind him. He will shake up the race even further, but I think the two that will shake this race up the most are Klobuchar and Brown. If all 3 enter this race, I will be very satisfied with the field.
Saw Woods on an old Johnny Carson episode recently. Probably 80s. He was creepy even then, especially talking about being newly married and exposing himself as a complete control freak.