Somehow leftist undergrad, Biden appointee Komatireddy is GOP nominee for AG

Conservatives here are increasingly nervous about the midterms, especially some of the key statewide races in states like New York, where Republicans had been making inroads before the establishment regained control of the nominating process—and handed the party faithful candidates such as Saritha Komatireddy to face Attorney General Letitia James.

Somehow, New York GOP mandarins pushed the idea that Komatireddy was the choice of President Donald J. Trump, perhaps because the president nominated her for a federal judgeship in 2020 that was never acted upon by the Senate—although she was backed by the state’s two Democratic senators, Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand.

Trump has not endorsed her for this office in this cycle, so maybe, before that comes to pass, it is productive to look at her background.

A native of Brooklyn, Komatireddy grew up in St. Louis and returned to the state when she became an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of New York. She was hired by Loretta Lynch and worked there until October.

That tenure was interrupted when she took a political appointment from President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to serve as chief of staff to the administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration from 2023 to 2024.

A one-time law clerk for Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, Komatireddy did not join the group of 65 former law clerks who signed a letter defending him against the allegations leveled against him by Christine Blasey Ford.

Instead, she signed a letter saying Kavanaugh was a fine judge.

Frankly, there is nothing in her record to suggest she would serve the interests of New York Republicans, let alone MAGA.

At EDNY, she took on many cases, but none of them involved James’ Brooklyn townhouse, which was the subject of a criminal referral from the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

Maybe she never stopped being the leftist Harvard undergrad, despite her current affectations.

When she was co-chair of the Student Advisory Committee of the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations, she wrote in a Nov. 13, 2003, piece in The Crimson criticizing the United States and its cultural ancestry:

Western civilization is wrought with intolerance and oppression: expansive and imperialist supremacy efforts by Western nations—such as the Crusades, the Inquisition and 19th century colonialism—killed and oppressed millions in various countries in the world. Even the United States, prized by many as the bastion of liberty and equality, is no mere bystander of intolerant and repressive action.

In fact, the increasing freedom and progress towards equality that we do see today is largely due to women and minority groups. In persistently pursuing their own convictions these groups were able to throw off the shackles of slavery and subjugation and transform Western society. Particularly in America, the forthright demands of women’s rights and civil rights activists brought about the legislation that now seeks to ensure that freedoms are protected both for minority groups and the American people at large.

It may be spilled milk, but it is important to remember that New York City attorney Michael Henry, in his 2022 challenge to James, lost 55 percent to 45 percent, a much closer result than those of the GOP challengers in 2018, when James beat Republican Keith Wofford 62 percent to 35 percent, and in 2014, when Democratic Attorney General Eric Schneiderman beat Republican John Cahill 53 percent to 39 percent.

Given the context of Lee Zeldin’s gallant 2022 gubernatorial campaign, when Zeldin lost to Democratic incumbent Kathy Hochul, 53 percent to 47 percent, there was an expectation that Republicans would make a stronger run in 2024.

For the top job, Zeldin took a position in Trump’s administration as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, taking him off the board, and Rep. Elise Stefanik decided to stay in the House—albeit under fraught and confusing circumstances.

It came to pass that Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, an attorney who, as a young man, was a driver for Nancy Reagan, became the GOP nominee for governor. Blakeman currently trails Hochul by roughly 20 points, with nothing on the horizon to change that dynamic.

People close to the Stefanik campaign described to me how the congresswoman had the money, polling and organization to win the governor’s race, which meant Henry’s race was also in good shape, since the two had an understanding that they would be running as a ticket.

Henry, for his own reasons, saw that running with Blakeman at the top of the ticket might be very helpful for the Nassau County Republican Party and its candidates, but would be a mistake for him.

Clearly, there is no way Komatireddy becomes the Empire State attorney general in January 2027, but maybe that is why her campaign existed in the first place.