SACRAMENTO — In her first move after returning to California, former Vice President Kamala Harris took a smart step toward a possible run for governor.

She visited with wildfire victims, volunteers, and firefighters in Aldadena and helped distribute free meals to those who lost their homes.

That doesn’t mean she’s running for anything. It is highly unlikely that Harris will decide whether to run for governor in her home state when Gov. Gavin Newsom’s term ends next year.

But she did what a candidate would do by demonstrating outstanding concern for victims and demonstrating the potential leadership qualities that voters look for in key elected officials. Not showing up might have conveyed cold indifference.

Natural disasters can bring great benefits to politicians, or they can cause serious harm, whether fair or unfair. Whether or not it was Harris’ intention to score political points, she likely benefited.

Let’s put this into perspective. Harris spent a nightmarish mid-Monday at the Capitol, watching in pain as President Trump was sworn into the office she coveted, and listening to an irreverent inaugural address attacking the Biden administration and even her own state. Ta.

Then she boarded a plane and headed back to Los Angeles. The last thing most people want to do immediately after landing is go straight to a horrible location and hear the sad stories of the victims.

So give her credit for trying to console people while taking smart political moves.

Ms. Harris has many critics, and her public record is vulnerable to attack. But look at what she might be up against in the gubernatorial race. It’s not overwhelming at all. If she enters the race, most other candidates are likely to drop out or not even run.

Her background as a U.S. senator, state attorney general, and San Francisco district attorney, her fundraising ability, and her high profile mean she’ll start far ahead.

But as I’ve written before, Harris, 60, should only run if she truly wants to solve California’s worsening problems by putting wildfire prevention high on her list. It is.

Seeing the state capitol as a stepping stone back to the White House could be politically fatal. Voters won’t accept it.

In any case, as leaders of the planet’s fifth-largest economy, Democrats may find joy in resisting President Trump’s anti-California policies.

Hopefully, President Trump’s tour of the Southern California wildfire disaster will arouse sympathy for the victims and his attempt to force unrelated water policy concessions from Newsom in exchange for federal fire aid promised by President Biden. I hope that it will alleviate the problem.

President Trump answers questions from reporters while signing an executive order at the White House on January 23, 2025.

(Ben Curtis/Associated Press)

The president essentially wants to reduce water for dwindling salmon and steelhead, provide water for exported almonds and pistachios, and is holding wildfire victims hostage unless he gets his way. are.

Trump needs to know about California’s geography and its complex water system, because he doesn’t seem to know California’s water from sea otters.

After the fire broke out, President Trump ridiculously blamed Newsom for running out of fire hydrants in the Pacific Palisades. In reality, it wasn’t because of hurricane-force winds, but because there were too many fires to extinguish and the water system couldn’t keep up.

A small reservoir was empty while waiting for repairs. This is due to the slow response of local government officials. But even if that reservoir had been full, it wouldn’t have made much of a difference to the whole tragedy.

President Trump’s water chatter is so wrong that it often doesn’t make sense.

In a conversation with reporters on Tuesday, President Trump appeared to mistakenly believe that California’s water comes from the Pacific Northwest and that Newsom would shut off the valves so no water would flow to Los Angeles. It all flows into the ocean.

In fact, more than 5 million acre-feet of water is pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to the San Joaquin Valley, Central Coast, and Southern California each year.

Big Break, a small bay along the San Joaquin River in Oakley, California, on December 5, 2023.

(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)

In his inaugural address, President Trump also claimed that California’s leaders had allowed wildfires to be ignited “without any semblance of protection.” That would be good news for the thousands of firefighters struggling to extinguish the blaze.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has been unfairly criticized for attending the inauguration of Ghana’s president during wildfires. But even if she had been driving a fire truck in the Palisades, it wouldn’t have made any difference to the disaster.

But she acted like a deer in headlights shortly after returning home, compounding her public relations problems. Now, her re-election next year is in serious jeopardy.

It’s human nature. People, especially political opponents, always try to find fault when a disaster occurs. And they expect the leaders they elect to lead.

Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass tour the Pacific Palisades downtown business district as the Palisades Fire continues to burn on January 8, 2025.

(Eric Thayer/Getty Images)

Mr. Newsom keeps his head high by issuing executive orders left and right and authorizing billions of dollars in state-funded emergency aid. TV news cameras couldn’t miss him. He follows a natural disaster strategy for politicians.

The Governor’s Best Disaster Performance Award of All Time goes to Pete Wilson. After the devastating 1994 Northridge earthquake, he got Los Angeles’ freeways open ahead of schedule by eliminating regulatory red tape and offering performance bonuses. That contributed to his re-election that year.

Pat Brown was unjustly the worst-hit governor by the disaster. He was vacationing in Greece when the Watts riots broke out in 1965. “Where was Pat?” became President Ronald Reagan’s winning campaign one-liner the following year.

Governor Edmund “Pat” Brown, August 27, 1964.

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Lt. Gov. Glenn Anderson, acting governor, was reluctant to call in the National Guard. He also lost reelection.

“In times of crisis, it is essential that we reassure the public as much as possible that help is on the way,” Wilson previously told reporters. …We need to do it very quickly, very reliably, and with visibility. …We need to tell them what is actually being done to alleviate their suffering. ”

But elected leaders shouldn’t tell people what Brown did while touring horrific flooding on the north coast: “This is the worst disaster since I was elected governor.” Brown had a great sense of self-deprecating humor and continued to laugh at his own gaffes for years.

Harris practiced and delivered a smart performance on California disaster communications, leaving her political options open.