Who is Clemmie Harris?
Aide to Fmr. NY Gov. Likely Running for Congress in NY-22
A local university educator with a controversial past in public service is preparing a bid for Congress against Rep. Brandon Williams.
When asked if he’s officially running, as an FEC filing from last Thursday seems to indicate, Clemmie L. Harris, Ph.D. told me via email “a formal announcement is coming soon.” If he runs, this would be the first elected position Harris has sought in government.
Harris has been eyeing a bid against the incumbent Republican congressman for several weeks, according to a source familiar.
If the district lines remain the same, Harris will campaign for a congressional seat that stretches from the city of Syracuse to the city of Utica, where Harris is currently an associate history professor at Utica University.
Harris is a 59-year-old Buffalo native who went to undergraduate school and completed his first master’s degree at SUNY Albany and received his doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He is currently a member of the editorial advisory committee of the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography.
According to his personal website, Harris has received numerous professional and community service awards. He taught American history at Syracuse University and Wesleyan University prior to becoming the interim chair of the History Department at Utica University this past academic year.
In addition, Harris is the inaugural director of the Africana Studies program at Utica University, which was started just weeks after the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. Harris is also a retired criminal investigator with the New York State Police.
As a professor in Utica, Harris has taught courses focused on African-American history and intersectionality, according to course descriptions on his website. Additionally, Harris participated in a forum at the university meant to “demystify Critical Race Theory,” according to a March article from the student-run newspaper, The Tangerine.
Harris, who filed to run as a Democrat, previously served as a “high-level aide” to Fmr. New York Gov. David Paterson, who ascended to the office in 2008 after the resignation of Eliot Spitzer.
When asked about his duties in that position, Harris told the Albany Times-Union in 2009 “the Governor is my portfolio; I handle various and sundry tasks that he needs me to perform.”
Harris writes on his personal website that his influence in the governor’s office helped to move the needle on a variety of issues, “including drug law reform, reform to New York City’s Racial Profiling policy, economic justice initiatives such as the 2010 Business Diversification Act, the state’s first Chief Diversity Officer, and the creation of the nation’s strongest Minority and Women Owned Business program.”
In Twitter posts as recent as March 17 of this year, Harris said he was “deeply honored” to have worked with Paterson.
Harris and the former governor are longtime close personal friends and were even bachelor roommates in Albany at one point, according to reports. When Harris served as a “special assistant” to the Governor, he frequently stayed in the Governor’s Mansion.
On his personal website, Harris touted his work experience, saying that he has “a wealth of professional and civic experiences as a former senior aide who worked at the highest levels of state government in the New York State Executive Chamber.”
Yet, according to news reports at the time, Harris’ tenure was marked by multiple controversies and scandals.
Another top Paterson aide, David Johnson, faced domestic violence charges after an incident with his girlfriend, Sherr-Una Booker, on Halloween night in 2009.
In early 2010, then-State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo appointed an independent counsel, Judge Judith Kaye, to determine if Paterson and his senior aides, including Harris, were involved in witness tampering in the matter on Johnson’s behalf.
The New York Times reported in 2010 that Gov. Paterson called Booker himself and personally directed two aides (not Harris) to call her shortly before she stopped pursuing domestic violence charges against Johnson.
Johnson ultimately pled guilty to harassment, admitted to shoving Booker, and apologized.
Paterson would ultimately not face charges, but the political damage led to him ending his 2010 bid for a full term as governor, according to political pundits at time.
The four-month investigation by Kaye determined that the governor and his aides made errors of judgment in their handling of the matter, but found that their actions were not criminal.
Kaye reported that Johnson became violent with Booker after he was upset by her Halloween costume. Booker and another friend who was present for the altercation testified to Kaye that Johnson choked his girlfriend, threw her against a dresser, and tore off her costume.
Johnson tried to stop Booker from calling the police about the incident, according to Kaye’s report.
He also contacted a number of individuals that night, attempting to
control the situation, including fellow gubernatorial aide Harris.
Johnson spoke to Harris at around 8:45 p.m. and told him that there had been a “really bad argument” between him and Booker, according to Harris’ testimony.
Harris, according to the report, then had a series of phone conversations with Deneane Brown, a friend of Booker’s who went over to her apartment to “calm her down” at the direction of Johnson.
“Brown testified that Harris seemed to be predominantly concerned about whether Booker was going to file a police report,” Kaye writes.
Harris disputes Brown’s assessment of the situation, saying his primary concern that night was “Booker’s suggestion that Johnson’s Executive Chamber position had been misused to interfere with the NYPD’s response” to the incident.
In sum, Judge Kaye concluded that Harris contacted a friend of the victim in an apparent effort to influence whether a domestic violence allegation involving another top aide to the governor was reported to law enforcement. As noted above, Harris’s precise intentions are disputed.
The following day, Harris called Brown again to discuss “potential media exposure” of the incident.
“Harris was concerned that if the media caught wind of a domestic dispute involving one of Governor Paterson’s aides, it would be embarrassing for the Governor,” according to the report.
Harris testified that he wanted Booker to deal with the matter in a “noninterventionist” way and that it’s “possible” he asked Brown to “please, tell her not to go to court.”
Brown testified that she felt “uncomfortable” talking to Harris and ultimately did not pass on any of his suggestions to Booker.
The findings of Kaye’s report called actions by Harris “inappropriate,” while also acknowledging “there is no evidence to support a witness tampering charge” against him.
“Harris at least should have notified the Secretary to the Governor that an Executive Chamber employee had been involved in a police incident,” Kaye concluded. “Instead, Harris was more concerned about protecting the Governor from potential negative media coverage of a close aide’s domestic dispute.”
“Harris’ conduct — seeking to steer a domestic violence complainant away from the protections available to her by law — was inappropriate, especially for a public official with a law enforcement background as a member of State Police,” Kaye said.
Also uncovered at the time by the press was a 1995 domestic dispute between a woman and Harris himself, according to a 2010 article from The New York Post.
According to the Post, Harris and his then-girlfriend got into an
argument “that left the woman so scared that she called the cops.”
The report notes that the situation never became violent, unlike the allegations against Johnson.
Caroline Cranford, campaign manager for Harris’ likely Democratic primary opponent, Sarah Klee Hood, told me their team has “no comment.”
Klee Hood has centered her campaign against Williams on several issues, including “women’s rights” and ensuring access to abortion.
Harris has not yet responded to further requests for an interview on his background, including his time in the Executive Chamber.
