Thursday, August 22, 2024

Oakland’s rising star makes DNC debut

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Aug 22, 2024 View in browser
 
POLITICO California Playbook

By Dustin Gardiner and Lara Korte

Presented by 

Amazon

Lateefah Simon waves from DNC stage.

California House candidate Lateefah Simon speaks during the third day of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. | Francis Chung/POLITICO

THE BUZZ: GOING WAY BACK— Perhaps no other speaker at this week’s Democratic National Convention, aside from direct family members, knows Kamala Harris on a deeper personal level than Lateefah Simon.

Simon, who is favored to win the race to succeed Oakland Rep. Barbara Lee, has a friendship with the presidential nominee that stretches back more than 20 years. They met in the early days of Harris' first campaign for San Francisco district attorney in 2003.

That’s why Simon’s prime-time speaking slot at the DNC Wednesday night was closely watched. Her speech was character witness testimony of Harris’ empathetic side as prosecutor sought after by crime victims and leader close to the people.

“I saw Kamala Harris holding the hands of sexual-assault survivors,” Simon said during her short-but-passionate speech. “I saw scores of mothers who lost their babies to gun violence, lining up day after day at the courthouse, waiting only to speak to Kamala because they knew that she would hear them.”

Simon added, “She hears your story, she carries it with her. When she sees you, she truly sees you.”

Giving a prime speaking gig to a first-time House candidate was also a poignant nod to the Bay Area’s next generation of rising political stars.

Simon, whom the retiring Lee endorsed for her seat, will likely soon emerge as a major figure in Democratic politics given her proximity to the VP. She is also a protege of Lee, who would pick up her torch of outspoken progressivism.

She is expected to be a top surrogate for Harris’ campaign in the coming months, someone who can help dispel Republicans’ attempts to frame Harris as soft-on-crime while detailing what Simon called a “balanced” approach on justice reforms.

Playbook spoke with Simon about her early career working under Harris in the San Francisco district attorney's office — an unlikely pairing from the start.

It was a job Simon, then a justice-reform activist in her late 20s, never expected to hold. She had no college degree and was a single mother living in low-income housing. She said she was more comfortable wielding a bullhorn and leading protests outside the DA’s office than working inside it.

But Simon said her life changed when she met Harris on the campaign trail in 2003.

She was struck by Harris’ “grit” as she campaigned on the streets of neighborhoods like the Mission District, which had been hit hard by a wave of crack-cocaine addiction — an unusual place to see a career prosecutor.

“She doesn’t have a lot of fear,” Simon recalled. “Kamala was outside at grocery stores, in the hood.”

Harris defeated a more progressive incumbent, and she soon called Simon with a job offer to direct reentry services for offenders. Simon said Harris convinced her she could get more done for young people caught up in the legal system by making change inside the system.

Simon worked under Harris for nearly four years, during a time when the DA was often criticized by San Francisco progressives for her tough-on-crime approach.

Simon said while she occasionally disagreed with the hard edges of Harris’ policies, she also saw a softer side. Together, they launched a new division to help young offenders. She also recalled watching as Harris embraced weeping mothers whose sons, often Black and Latino, were killed from gun violence in the 2000s.

“She would say, ‘Because I need them to know I give a damn,’” said Simon, who worked in an adjacent office. “I was like, I will follow Kamala to the ends of the earth.”

GOOD MORNING. Happy Thursday. Thanks for waking up with Playbook. Today is the final day of the Democratic National Convention. Read more below on all the California updates from Chicago… And follow our @ccadelago and @melmason for reports on the ground.

You can text us at ‪916-562-0685‬‪ — save it as “CA Playbook” in your contacts. Or drop us a line at lkorte@politico.com and dgardiner@politico.com, or on X — @DustinGardiner and @Lara_Korte.

 

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WHERE’S GAVIN? In Chicago for the DNC.

With both Newsom and Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis at the convention, Senate President pro Tem Mike McGuire is in charge.

THE SCOOP

 California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during a press conference.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has increasingly criticized affluent coastal cities for opposing housing projects. | Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: NOT MELROSE PLACE — The Newsom administration is targeting another affluent coastal city for allegedly violating state housing law — and this time, it's one of the most famously wealthy: Beverly Hills.

Today, the California Department of Housing and Community Development is expected to send a “Notice of Violation” to Beverly Hills asserting the city broke state law by denying a developer’s permit to build a 165-unit apartment tower on the site of a parking lot.

“The City Council should reverse its decision and direct city staff to process the project without further delay,” states the letter, obtained exclusively by Playbook. If the city doesn’t move forward with the project, the state is threatening to pursue litigation.

Newsom, in a statement to Playbook, urged Beverly Hills officials to approve the tower, which nearby residents have complained would hurt their quality of life. He referred to opponents of the project as NIMBYs (Not in My Back Yard), an acronym for homeowners who resist growth.

“We can’t solve homelessness without addressing our housing shortage,” the governor said. “Now is a time to build more housing, not cave to the demands of NIMBYs.”

In June, the Beverly Hills City Council rejected developer Leo Pustilnikov’s proposal to build the 200-foot-tall tower, which would be the gilded city’s tallest building. The proposed project includes 132 market-rate apartments and 33 rental units for lower-income households, as well as a restaurant and hotel, on the lower floors.

Pustilnikov invoked the “builder’s remedy,” a cudgel in state law that requires cities to approve any size of housing project if the local government hasn’t planned for enough homes. The developer, in turn, must provide more affordable rental units.

Beverly Hills officials argue the remedy law doesn’t apply in this case because their housing plan was approved by the state in May 2024.

State officials are siding with Pustilnikov, arguing the project must be approved because he proposed the tower before the city finished its housing plan. It’s the latest in a string of cases where Newsom’s admin has chided coastal cities, including Millbrae and Woodside, for holding up construction amid a statewide housing crisis.

“While I’m glad Beverly Hills has finally adopted a compliant housing plan, their attempt to block this housing project violates the law,” Newsom said.

STATE CAPITOL

Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks smiles and stands near her desk with her arms open in the California Legislature.

Assemblymember Buffy Wicks. | Rich Pedroncelli/AP

BUFFY’S BACKLASH — An effort to bolster California’s languishing newspapers culminated on Wednesday in a deal that has irked some Democratic lawmakers and inflamed an increasingly divisive topic in the journalism industry.

Assemblymember Buffy Wicks’ $250 million agreement with Google to fund California newsrooms includes a private-public partnership that would see the state and the company send tens of millions of dollars to local journalists while also funding artificial intelligence — a technology many journalists fear could make them obsolete.

Wicks, in an interview with Playbook, defended the deal, calling it the best case scenario for quickly getting money to journalists.

Many journalists don’t see it that way. Read more on the dissent here. 

 

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CALIFORNIA AT THE DNC

Kamala Harris waves as she arrives for the Democratic National Convention.

Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. | Francis Chung/POLITICO

IN A HURRY — Former California Sen. Barbara Boxer didn’t miss the chance to see her predecessor symbolically accept the party’s nomination in Chicago. But Boxer acknowledged it came faster than she expected.

Harris succeeded Boxer in the Senate in 2017 after her retirement. At the DNC in Chicago yesterday, Boxer recalled an early meeting.

“They came to my home, and I’ll never forget, we’re sitting around the dinner table talking. I looked at her, and I said, ’Kamala, this is an incredibly important job, and I held it for 24 years. I hope you get how important you’re going to be to the state.’”

Harris told Boxer, ’Oh, I do. I do. I do,’” she said. “The next thing I know, she’s running for president.” — Christopher Cadelago

ON-AIR TALENT — The brain behind a pair of new Harris campaign ads aimed at Asian American voters is Long Beach’s own Courtni Pugh. The longtime consultant for Harris is the campaign's director of AANHPI paid media and produced the two spots, which go after Donald Trump on healthcare and for stoking a spike in anti-Asian hate crimes.

ON THE AGENDA — POLITICO’s Senior Political Columnist Jonathan Martin will interview former Speaker Nancy Pelosi at 1:30 p.m. CT as part of the POLITICO-CNN Grill at the DNC. Later on, at 3 p.m. CT, Playbook co-author and White House correspondent Eugene Daniels will speak with Sen. Laphonza Butler.

Watch live and follow our coverage at politico.com/dnc.

CLIMATE AND ENERGY

AFFORDABILITY, ANYONE — Energy and electricity once again are chips on the end-of-session table. What’s missing is detail. Find out what’s preoccupying environmentalists, unions and ratepayer advocates in last night’s California Climate.

TOP TALKERS

PODCASTIN’ — Our own Chris Cadelago delved into the inner workings of Harris’ campaign infrastructure Tuesday on Tara Palmeri’s “Somebody’s Gotta Win” podcast, alongside Axios’ Alex Thompson. One takeaway: Harris is “locked in,” armed with Avengers-level talent and backed by a unified Democratic Party — but her sky-high stock could dip before Election Day.

HARRIS SPEECH PREVIEW — More from Cadelago, who spoke with the vice president’s advisers and allies ahead of her address to the convention tonight. They outlined a speech where she will connect her own personal story — a middle-class daughter of immigrants whose mother purchased their first home when her daughters were nearly in their teens — with the American Dream.

EARLY CAREER  — Another one from the POLITICO California newsroom: Our Eric He spent the last several weeks in the records room of the Oakland courthouse where Harris first entered the DA’s office as an intern in 1988. Eric pulled reams of transcripts to show how, in 1997, Deputy Prosecutor Harris handled one of the biggest cases of her young career — the gang rape of a 13-year-old runaway.

 

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AROUND THE STATE

San Francisco Mayor London Breed watches during the Democratic National Convention.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed. | Erin Hooley/AP

— At the DNC, San Francisco is flexing on its haters with fancy drinks, sushi platters and The Killers. (San Francisco Chronicle)

— Rep. Ken Calvert exploits a mailing loophole to send postcards to thousands of constituents before congressional elections without paying for postage. (Coachella Valley Independent)

Matthew Perry’s former doctor is still seeing patients, even after he was charged in the “Friends” actor’s ketamine death. (Los Angeles Times)

— compiled by Tyler Katzenberger

PLAYBOOKERS

PEOPLE MOVES — Lucas Public Affairs announces the promotion of Jessyca Sheehan and Travis Taylor to executive vice presidents. They will join CEO Donna Lucas and President Cassandra Pye as members of the firm’s executive team.

BIRTHDAYS — Nick Mildebrath of Convergence Targeted Communications … Meta’s Jen Nedeau Helm Eleanor Strom Selena Strandberg

BELATED B-DAY WISHES — (was Wednesday): Jack Weiss ... Chavie N. Kahn ... Sergey Brin

WANT A SHOUT-OUT FEATURED? — Send us a birthday, career move or another special occasion to include in POLITICO’s California Playbook. You can now submit a shout-out using this Google form.

CALIFORNIA POLICY IS ALWAYS CHANGING: Know your next move. From Sacramento to Silicon Valley, POLITICO California Pro provides policy professionals with the in-depth reporting and tools they need to get ahead of policy trends and political developments shaping the Golden State. To learn more about the exclusive insight and analysis this subscriber-only service offers, click here.

Want to make an impact? POLITICO California has a variety of solutions available for partners looking to reach and activate the most influential people in the Golden State. Have a petition you want signed? A cause you’re promoting? Seeking to increase brand awareness amongst this key audience? Share your message with our influential readers to foster engagement and drive action. Contact Rebecca Haase to find out how: rhaase@politico.com.

 

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