Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown is taking credit for helping Kamala Harris' career after the California senator declared she was running for president.
Harris and Brown dated for just seven months, but their relationship has followed her career for decades.
And it seems speculation around the brief fling won't be going anywhere any time soon after Brown wrote a column about it for the San Francisco Chronicle.
The piece may be titled 'Sure, I dated Kamala Harris. So What?', but Brown takes the time to both claim he influenced Harris' career and get in a swipe at her in the brief piece.
Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown is taking credit for helping Kamala Harris' career after the California senator declared she was running for president. The couple briefly dated in the early 1990s
Brown (pictured in 2017) claims he both influenced Harris' career and helped her get elected as San Francisco District Attorney is a new column
'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. Most of them, I have not returned,' he begins the column.
'Yes, we dated. It was more than 20 years ago. Yes, I may have influenced her career by appointing her to two state commission when I was Assembly speaker.'
Brown was speaker of the California State Assembly for 15 years, during which he appointed Harris to the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board and the California Medical Assistance Commission.
The former mayor also writes that he 'certainly helped with her first race for district attorney in San Francisco' in 2003.
'I have also helped the careers of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Gov Gavin Newsom, Sen Dianne Feinstein and a host of other politicians,' Brown wrote.
'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.' That's politics for ya.'
What Brown fails to note in his biting last words is that his brief relationship with Harris was considered a major issue while she was first running for district attorney in 2003, dominating headlines and her male competitors' talking points about her.
Harris met Brown in 1994, when he was speaker of the state assembly and she was serving as the deputy district attorney in Alameda County in California. She was 29 at the time, he was 60.
They dated from May to December that year. Harris dumped Brown shortly after he was elected mayor of San Francisco.
But her brief relationship with Brown almost derailed Harris' DA campaign as her opponents claimed she couldn't be impartial to Brown, who at that point was a lame duck mayor
Some were bothered by the fact that Brown technically was still married when he dated Harris, despite the fact that he had been amicably separated from his wife Blanche Vitero since 1982.
And the flashy politician, known for his fleet of sports cars and womanzing ways, never kept his dating life a secret.
In 1984, Brown was named one of the world's 10 sexiest men by Playgirl magazine.
He was known to have a 'succession of girlfriends', sometimes showing up to a party with 'his wife on one arm and his girlfriend on the other', said James Richardson, who wrote Brown's biography in 1996.
Brown, who also has three adult children, would go on to have a baby with his chief fundraiser in 2001. Still, he made it clear he had no plans to divorce his wife.
'Mayor Brown has been fairly open about his marital status and how he lives his life,' his spokesman said at the time.
Harris (pictured greeting Brown in 2017) said she refused to design her campaign around criticizing Brown but that she also did not 'owe him a thing'
Meanwhile, Harris' opponents District Attorney Terence Hallinan and Bill Fazio tried to argue that Harris wouldn't be an impartial DA to Brown - who at that point was a lame duck mayor - because of their seven-month relationship nearly a decade prior.
Harris called Brown an 'albatross hanging around my neck' at the time of her campaign and made it clear she felt no alliance to him despite their past relationship.
'I refuse to design my campaign around criticizing Willie Brown,' she told SF Weekly in 2003.
'I have no doubt that I am independent of him - and that he would probably right now express some fright about the fact that he cannot control me.'
'His career is over. I will be alive and kicking for the next 40 years. I do not owe him a thing.'
Harris also denied that she ever asked Brown for fundraising help amid reports he donated $500 - the maximum allowed - to her campaign while one of his former political consultants was raising money on her behalf without her consent.
'Would it make sense if you are a martian coming to Earth that the litmus test for public office is where a candidate is in their relationship to Willie Brown?' she said.
'Willie Brown is not going to be around. He's gone - hello people, move on. If there is corruption, it will be prosecuted. It's a no-brainer.'
Harris' comments were echoed by her sister, Maya Harris West, and mother Shyamala Gopalan, who both called the stories unfair and sexist.
'This hype around Willie Brown is such a distraction and so opportunistic, sexist, and ridiculous,' said West.
'When a woman dates an accomplished man, why are people so willing to assume it's only because of him that the woman is successful?'
'What has Willie Brown done for her? Introduce her to society people when they dated?' added Gopalan. 'If they did not like Kamala on her own right, they would have dropped her after she dropped Willie.'
The headlines weren't enough to bring down Harris' campaign.
After initially lagging in the polls, she won the election and became the state's first African American district attorney.
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https://hienalouca.com/2019/01/27/former-sf-mayor-willie-brown-says-he-influenced-ex-girlfriend-kamala-harris-career/
Main photo article Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown is taking credit for helping Kamala Harris’ career after the California senator declared she was running for president.
Harris and Brown dated for just seven months, but their relationship has followed her career for decades.
And it seems s...
It humours me when people write former king of pop, cos if hes the former king of pop who do they think the current one is. Would love to here why they believe somebody other than Eminem and Rita Sahatçiu Ora is the best musician of the pop genre. In fact if they have half the achievements i would be suprised. 3 reasons why he will produce amazing shows. Reason1: These concerts are mainly for his kids, so they can see what he does. 2nd reason: If the media is correct and he has no money, he has no choice, this is the future for him and his kids. 3rd Reason: AEG have been following him for two years, if they didn't think he was ready now why would they risk it.
Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.
Dianne Reeves US News HienaLouca
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