State: Mistake forces Harris to resign

TALLAHASSEE -- Secretary of State Katherine Harris, the state's top elections official, acknowledged Thursday she failed to follow an election law herself and abruptly resigned.

It was a bizarre end to the controversial tenure of one of the most visible figures in the 2000 presidential election recount.

[AP photo]
"I just made that assumption," said Katherine Harris. "I should have read the law. I didn't. I take full responsibility."

Harris said she made a mistake when she qualified to run for Congress last month by failing to submit a letter of resignation required of all state officeholders seeking federal office.

She said she didn't think the law applied to her because Florida's elected secretary of state post is being abolished in January. "I just made that assumption," she said. "I should have read the law. I didn't. I take full responsibility."

The resignation letter would have allowed her to remain in office until January, though she repeatedly insisted she planned to resign early.

State law requires all state officials to submit a resignation letter when they qualify to run for federal office. Otherwise they face "an automatic irrevocable resignation, effective immediately, from the office he or she presently holds."

The law has been on the books since the 1970s to keep state officials from keeping one office while seeking another.

Harris qualified to run for Congress on July 15. She is seeking a seat being vacated by Rep. Dan Miller, R-Bradenton.

Already facing criticism for a series of recent missteps, Harris' resignation sparked rueful laughter from Democrats and political observers.

"This is beyond egg on your face," said Richard Scher, a political science professor at the University of Florida. "This is just plain dumb."

Her congressional opponents were shocked, including a Democrat who printed "Anybody But Katherine" bumper stickers and a man who tried to qualify his dog, Percy, to run against her.

"This shows the problems with the Republican Party," said Wayne Genthner, who is running as a Republican write-in candidate because elections officials wouldn't allow his dog to run. "The party structure is on deck. The officers are drinking, and the captain is drunk. We're all chained to the boat, rowing with no discernable direction."

Harris' only Republican opponent, former television anchor John C. Hill, said: "I feel very, very sorry for Katherine, because it must be terribly, terribly embarrassing."

Her resignation comes nearly two years after Harris' high-profile role in the 2000 presidential election, in which she certified George W. Bush as the winner in Florida, guaranteeing him the White House. And it comes one month before Florida's new election system, designed to fix the problems from 2000, has its first test in the Sept. 10 primary.

"We have an election that is under a microscope right now, and apparently there is nobody home -- we don't know who is in charge," said Florida Democratic Party spokesman Ryan Banfill.

Harris called a news conference on short notice Thursday after reporters discovered she failed to file the required letter and started asking questions.

Standing on a package of copy paper before a podium in the same Cabinet room where she declared the president, Harris began by reading a lengthy letter she wrote to the governor. The letter was filled with praise for her own accomplishments in the field of international relations and the election law changes.

She said that she had a "burning desire" to continue her role as election reformer but that it was hard to balance with the "increasing demands of my congressional campaign."

"I made this decision over the course of several months," Harris wrote. "I reflected extensively upon what course of action would best serve the interests of every Floridian."

Harris said she originally planned to resign July 1, but remained on the job to deal with the transition when her post is abolished in January. Florida voters eliminated her elected position as part of a reorganization of state government in 1998. The governor will appoint someone to handle her duties.

As reporters questioned the legality of her actions during the two weeks since she was technically out of office, aides stepped in and began hustling her out of the room.

Assistant Secretary of State Dave Mann knocked off tape recorders and microphones that reporters had placed on the podium as he took Harris by the arm and began escorting her out of the room.

Harris repeatedly said she was the "de facto secretary," even as she was rushed out of the room and into a private office with about a dozen reporters in pursuit.

That is an apparent reference to a provision in the Florida Constitution that allows officeholders to continue performing their duties until a successor is named.

Her failure to submit a resignation in time does not affect her status as a candidate, her office said.

Asked whether Florida voters can have confidence in the state's ability to properly supervise elections if she didn't understand the law, Harris at first insisted she did understand it.

"I simply did not sign a letter of resignation since I knew I would be resigning prior to that time and since that office would not become an elected position," Harris said. "In no way should the confidence of the voters be shaken. Our division of elections has done an outstanding job, even last week when I came under fire because of a legislative error, not their error, they continued to do an outstanding job,"

At one point she said she knew the law required her to resign but then said she didn't realize the law applied to her because her job as secretary of state is being abolished.

Gov. Jeb Bush will have to appoint a new secretary to oversee the upcoming elections. A Bush press secretary, Katie Muniz, said the governor accepted the resignation but said Harris remains on the job until a successor is named.

Harris notified the governor of her resignation in a telephone call Thursday morning.

Republicans are threatening legal action against Democratic Attorney General Bob Butterworth for not resigning his office 10 days before the qualifying deadline.

Butterworth resigned one day before qualifying, with his resignation effective the day before the Nov. 5 general election. He says the intent of the resign-to-run law is to assure that those who might seek the candidate's current office have time to file nomination papers. Because he is being forced out of office due to term limits, Butterworth said candidates had plenty of time to file.

Harris' resignation was the latest blow to an elections process that has been under attack for almost two years. More recently, her office miscalculated the filing fee for legislative candidates, forcing candidates to scramble to send an extra $40.23 to elections officials in Tallahassee with two days' notice.

That was followed by confusion after a FedEx plane carrying candidate qualifying papers crashed.

Pasco County Elections Supervisor Kurt Browning said he hopes the governor gets someone like former Secretary of State Sandra Mortham to fill the job.

"She's been there before, she could do the job," Browning said.

Republican State Rep. Dudley Goodlette of Naples, who heads a legislative committee that oversees elections, suggested another possibility: former Republican Secretary of State Jim Smith, a Tallahassee lobbyist.

Susan MacManus, a University of South Florida political scientist who is chairwoman of the Florida Elections Commission, said if anyone should know state elections law, it's Harris and Butterworth.

"Here you've got the two most experienced Cabinet people, and yet they both seem to have problems with the resign-to-run law," MacManus said. "It's one more reason why people throw up their hands and don't run for office."

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Lucy Morgan

From the Times state desk