Opinion: If Harris runs for governor, is she prepared for California’s top job?

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at the Air Force Academy in Image from her official Twitter feed This column was originally published by CalMatters Sign up for their newsletters A couple of weeks ago Kamala Harris got the full New York Times medication a lengthy article speculating whether she would run for governor of California next year or prepare for another shot at the White House in As the Times is wont to do the piece was full of quotes and suppositions from anonymous sources Interviews with more than three dozen of Ms Harris s advisers former aides allies and friends reveal a politician known as much as anything for her caution standing at perhaps her majority fateful crossroads yet the Times explained in a piece with four bylines After years as an elected official she must decide whether or how to continue her political career in an climate that was remade by her defeat Particular Harris aides believe she would automatically be the front-runner in a crowded primary field thanks to her name recognition and wide setup of donors and supporters But a great number of more Democrats argue against another Harris-for-President bid The electoral contest will be a contest for the party s future in which she would be perceived as a figure of the past the reasoning goes Others say Democrats will not nominate another woman fearing the country is too sexist for her to win The article more or less pointed to a gubernatorial run rather than waiting for Ms Harris has good reason for leaning toward a run for governor according to people who have spoken with her the Times mentioned She has watched with horror as institutions Democrats care about universities law firms and more have caved under pressure And she believes that as governor of the nation s most of populous blue state she would have a powerful platform from which to push back against Mr Trump and his policies and to defend Democratic priorities and values There are two things wrong with the article The first is that it cast Harris situation almost entirely in terms of advancing her political career an example of political journalism s tendency to cover politics as something like reporting on sports events who s winning who s losing who s up and who s down rather than a prelude to governance That approach while appealing to political junkies fully ignores the issues that a politician might face if he or she is fortunate enough to be elected In this incident the Times implied that the polling for a governor who would lead the world s fourth-largest economic system is just about opposition to Donald Trump and nothing else The article contained not one sentence about the California issues Harris would inherit from Gavin Newsom were she to become governor such thorny matters as a perpetual housing shortage homelessness poverty an uncertain water supply educational deficiencies and chronic state budget deficits Having ignored those issues all of which predate Trump the Times article s second deficiency is that it contained nothing about Harris abilities or lack thereof to confront them And there is good reason to doubt whether she would be up to the job During her climb up the political ladder Harris record was mixed at best As the state s attorney general she was best known for tightly orchestrated media events rather than substantive action She even ducked the Capitol s debates about changing the criminal justice system As a senator she authored no noteworthy ordinance not even on California-centered matters while the late Sen Dianne Feinstein steadfastly carried the state s political water Harris campaign for president in was a accident and after being chosen as Joe Biden s running mate she did little of note as vice president Governing an extremely complex state such as California is a daunting task as any past governor could attest not a consolation prize for losing a presidential contest CalMatters is a citizens interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California s state Capitol works and why it matters