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IF I WAS CHOOSING A VICE PRESIDENT FOR KAMALA HARRIS…

Perspective from the 19th Hole is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

There is more news that you may want to read these days about whom Kamala Harris will choose as her vice president to go up against Donald Trump and J.D. Vance.

But, if I was making the choice, here is what I would consider, in order of priority:

  1. A person who has the experience and ability to serve as president, being only a heartbeat away from the top job.
  • A person who has executive experience running government programs because that’s what the Executive Branch does – run programs with responsibility for results.
  • A person who comes from a state that is up for grabs in the election… so that person would add to the ability of the D ticket to win.
  • A person who has ability in going live with support for the D tickets programs, plus the presumed ability to debate Vance.,

There, but my bias is #2 above – executive experience.

Today, there about five still in the running for the VP slot, though that number changes nearly every day, depending who is writing about the decision.

The five:

  • Arizona Senator Mark Kelly [For me, his experience as an astronaut, plus other credentials offset the lack of executive experience.]
  • Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro
  • Minnesota Governor Tim Walz
  • Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear
  • U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg

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