SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – Attorney General Kamala Harris has investments worth as much as $1 million after her marriage last summer to Douglas Emhoff, who owns stock in dozens of companies in industries the attorney general oversees, such as technology and communications interests, according to a filing released Tuesday.
Harris is a career prosecutor with a $154,150 state salary who had no reportable investments or income to disclose when she filed her annual conflict-of-interest statement a year ago.
But Emhoff is partner in charge of the Los Angeles office of the Venable LLP law firm. He valued his stake in the law firm at between $100,000 and $1 million, and listed his annual income as over $100,000. He also reported ownership valued at between $10,000 and $100,000 in Delaware-based Citizens Lanier Investors LLC, which invests in parking lots, and income between $1,000 and $10,000 last year from Lanier.
Emhoff also listed 31 stocks in a retirement fund, valued together at between $62,000 and $310,000 in Harris' 2014 statement of economic interests received by the state Fair Political Practices Commission on Tuesday. The stocks include American Express, Caterpillar, Comcast Corp., Walt Disney, FedEx, Nike, Home Depot and Monsanto.
Harris, a Democrat, is running for the U.S. Senate next year. She stressed in her filing that her husband's retirement account is held separately, and that the stock holdings were funded before the couple married in August.
"The Department of Justice maintains a very strict conflict of interest policy that applies to everyone in the department, from the Attorney General to the line staff," spokesman David Beltran said in a statement.
Harris has sued a number of companies since becoming attorney general, and she has taken a particular interest in technology regulation and online privacy.
Among her husband's stock holdings are several tech and telecommunications firms, including Oracle, Hewlett Packard, American Tower, United Technologies Corp. and Verizon Communications. They also include energy companies Hess Corp. and Valero Energy.
The advocacy group Consumer Watchdog has recently called on the attorney general and other state officials to investigate rising gasoline prices.
Harris also listed a few gifts, including flowers valued at $101 from Fox Entertainment Group, $58 worth of champagne from AEG sports and entertainment company, and a lunch with the president of Mexico valued at $234 and paid for by the California Foundation for Commerce and Education, a branch of the California Chamber of Commerce.
Separately, Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, also reported receiving a handful of gifts, including tequila valued at $200 from the president of Mexico and $2,291 in transportation, hotel and meals paid for by the California Foundation for Commerce & Education for his July trade mission to Mexico.
Brown's investments include more than $100,000 in stock in Jack in the Box Inc.
Brown's wife, Anne Gust Brown, previously served on the company's board.
___
Associated Press writer Juliet Williams contributed to this story.
