Kamala Harris schmoozes with Hamptons elite as Democrats try to bridge gap with working class – Washington Examiner

If she runs for president in 2020, Sen. Kamala Harris will be more similar to Hillary Clinton than Bernie Sanders. That's not exactly new information, but the California Democrat's weekend plans further crystallize her entanglement with the conflicts that drove many Democratic voters to support Sanders over Clinton.

Harris, who once called income inequality the "defining economic challenge of our time," is headed up to the Hamptons this weekend to schmooze with wealthy influencers from Hollywood to Wall Street.

Page Six reported this week:

The popular California pol will have a private meeting, we hear, with Hollywood liberal kingmaker Harvey Weinstein and his wife Georgina Chapman, as well as a separate dinner Friday with guests, who will include New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and former US Attorney General Eric Holder. Also on Friday, we hear she'll meet with a group in Bridgehampton, including ex-Ambassador to the UN Susan E. Rice and business honchos such as Citigroup's Ray McGuire and PepsiCo's Tony West. On Saturday, Harris will attend a reception for 300 people at the East Hampton home of her friend, Infor CEO Charles E. Phillips, as well as a fund-raiser at the home of Lisa Rosenblum.

Page Six also reported that Harris is set to meet with Clinton's "biggest backers":

The California senator is being fted in Bridgehampton on Saturday at the home of MWWPR guru Michael Kempner, a staunch Clinton supporter who was one of her national-finance co-chairs and a led fund-raiser for her 2008 bid for the presidency. He was also listed as one of the top "bundlers" for Barack Obama's 2012 re-election campaign, having raised $3 million. Guests there to greet Harris are expected to include Margo Alexander, a member of Clinton's inner circle; Dennis Mehiel, a Democratic donor who is the chairman of the Battery Park City Authority, even though he lives between a sprawling Westchester estate and an Upper East Side pad; designer Steven Gambrel and Democratic National Committee member Robert Zimmerman.

"Washington lobbyist Liz Robbins is also hosting a separate Hamptons lunch for Harris," Page Six revealed as well.

The schisms over establishment Democrats' entanglements with corporations and lobbyists, embodied by Hillary Clinton, pitted the party's grassroots against itself during the presidential primary. Now, Harris is perceived as a fresh face to lead Democrats into the future, generating rumors that she'll follow Barack Obama's lead and run for president as a first term senator come 2020.

Given her decision to spend the weekend in a location more familiar to the Real Housewives of New York City than any lifelong Democrat in rural Iowa, courting powerful corporate figures from companies such as Citigroup and PepsiCo, meeting with lobbyists and Clinton donors, Harris, who's said she has no plans to run for president in 2020, may not be poised to heal the gaping wounds from which the party continues to bleed. She appears to be headed in a direction that could exacerbate those divisions, were she to seek higher office in the near future.

Emily Jashinsky is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.

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Kamala Harris schmoozes with Hamptons elite as Democrats try to bridge gap with working class - Washington Examiner

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