Watching GOP Attorney General candidate Saritha Komatireddy surgically destroy incumbent Letitia James in their debate two weeks ago, I suddenly felt like Marvin Berry in “Back to the Future” looking on in disbelief as time-traveling Marty McFly performed “Johnny B. Goode.”
In the famous scene, he calls his cousin, musician Chuck Berry and holds out the phone saying,
“You know that new sound you looking for? Well, listen to this.”
There I was, like Marvin Berry excitedly blasting clips from my iPhone to my friends and family, who have long abandoned hope that common sense could rule here.
That fresh sound was a New York candidate for office acknowledging and vowing to fight disorder, crime and fraud in the Empire State. It was Komatireddy.
“It’s not a new way forward for me, but it might be a new way forward in this political scene and that’s why it’s resonating so broadly,” she told me Tuesday morning over coffee.
Komatireddy was a relatively unknown former federal prosecutor when she squared off against James, whose biggest priority as AG has been sticking it to Trump. In the hour long debate, she was substantive, smart and prepared. She threw fair, clean punches without personal attacks.
The 41-year-old made the sitting AG look flat-footed, confused and out of her depth.
“It wasn’t a performance. It was just being a good lawyer. It was being a good prosecutor,” she said. “This is what I spent my career doing: talking to juries — a cross section of the community, folks who come from all walks of life — and presenting my case with evidence, with arguments and asking for their trust and confidence.”
Okay, if it wasn’t a performance, it was a clinic in dismantling one’s opponent.
The showdown produced a slew of made for social media moments, including James’ painfully awkward silence when asked to name a single previous AG she admired. More importantly, it provided a surge of momentum for Komatireddy’s campaign. She landed important endorsements from law enforcement organizations across the state and a nod from former NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly.
One post debate poll put the onetime longshot within 6 points of James.
“I’ve gotten a groundswell of support,” said the Upper East Side resident, which is evident as we walk near Wall Street. She was approached by a middle-aged finance dude who stopped to shake her hand while another one patiently waited to wish her luck.
“Anyone is better than Tish James,” the second man told me, but he was “impressed” by Komatireddy in the debate.
Then there was the barista Robert. While ringing up her coffee order, he stopped and asked if she was the lady running for AG. An immigrant from Wales, he said he became a citizen in 2002 and had registered to vote for the first time after seeing her in action.
Even in ultra progressive NYC, she has people whispering support for her.
But Komatireddy said she’s “not some partisan firebrand. I’m not in this for political headlines … I have worked for Democrats and Republicans. Public safety is not political.”
Born in Coney Island to Indian immigrant parents, she attended public high school in Missouri before earning her undergrad and law degrees from Harvard. She clerked for then future Justice Brett Kavanaugh in DC but “always wanted to make my life in New York.”
“Growing up, my father would always call me the New Yorker in the family because I speak the quickest and was born there.”
On her second date with her husband, the pair went to a Yankees game and she recalled him asking if she planned on staying in the Big Apple. She assured him, “This is home.”
It’s where she’s built her impressive career that has spanned administrations. In 2013, she was appointed assistant US attorney for the Eastern District, where she investigated and prosecuted terrorists and drug cartels.
Under the Biden Administration, she served as DEA Chief of Staff before going into private practice.
All this while raising two sets of twins. She endeared herself to parents when debate moderators asked the candidates which book they last read.
James haughtily said she was reading Democratic Congressman and fellow Trump agitator Jamie Raskin’s book.
Meanwhile, Komatireddy quipped “Little Blue Truck” or “El Camioncito Azul” as it’s known in Spanish. It’s her 2-year-olds’ favorite book.
“I have all of those books,” Komatireddy told me, her face immediately melting from business mode into a warm smile.
Her “relatable” side has been evident through her clever campaign videos — a scrappy operation that consists of her and one “very talented video guy.”
In one catchy video, she tackles subway crime and fare jumpers as Kris Kross’ “Jump Jump” plays. But her most viral one explains how the rampant retail theft that has led to drug stores locking up their goods, has been encouraged by our soft-on-crime policies.
“I think we got kicked out of two CVS stores in the process of filming that one,” she said.
On Tuesday, she assembled a group of anti-crime advocates vowing to establish the “Victims Advisory Council,” giving victims a “direct line” to the AG’s office.
She called her campaign for AG, “a movement of frustrated New Yorkers who have spent years feeling like they’re not being heard, who have been resigned to living in a world that they feel is not fair and not just.”
One of them is Michael DiTomasso, whose brother Joseph died of a fentanyl overdose in 2023. The Staten Islander now speaks to school kids about the dangers of the deadly drug.
Komatireddy recently visited the DiTomasso home in Staten Island to discuss the fentanyl crisis.
“I said to my parents, ‘do you think Letitia James would be sitting here right now?’ ” DiTomasso said.
She’s had more than three years to reach out. But she’s been busy fighting the Trump Administration instead of fighting for every day New Yorkers.
“There’s a clear contrast,” said Komatireddy. “We’re offering two different things.”