Kam Kuwata, RIP

Kam Kuwata, RIP: I met Democratic strategist Kam Kuwata through Lu Haas, a legendary Dem press person and Cranston aide. (Lu hailed from an earlier era when, as he explained to me, you could avoid being quoted in the press if every other word you said was “fuck.”)  Kam was a big man–wide and square, anyway–with an open and upbeat personality, but slightly masked, as if he knew a whole lot of things that you didn’t, which he did. We played tennis once and I worried he’d collapse then and there. I figured he must have a big heart. He radiated a sense of unflappable competence. Once I ran into him in the basement parking lot of a Venice building (where it turned out he lived). I conveyed Fred Siegel’s fears that the L.A.P.D. would go all to hell because one of Kam’s candidates, Mayor Hahn, was about to appoint a new police chief. Don’t worry, Kam assured me. It will be fine. A few weeks later the Mayor appointed William Bratton–possibly the best thing Hahn did. When I ran for Senate last year, Kam gave me some very basic pointers–savvy pro to clueless writer–about how to uncomplicate my message. I didn’t follow many of them. A few months ago we ran into each other at a party. He told me my campaign had sucked. Smiling. He was a beautiful person.  As the twitter stream of shocked condolences attests …