Harris' speech just one ring in bicoastal news circus
By LUCY MORGAN
Published January 17, 2004
It could only happen to Katherine Harris.
Just at the moment she stood before cameras Friday to announce her political plans, Michael Jackson, wearing a similar hairdo, left a California courtroom.
Cable television networks went nuts flipping back and forth between the stage in Sarasota and the circus in California.
They left Jackson in the courthouse hallways and focused on Harris as she began to talk, but quickly went back to Jackson as her speech began to drag.
Then Fox News announced that Harris would, after all, be running for the U.S. Senate and switched away from Jackson.
They were so busy watching Jackson and his strange entourage that they thought Harris was serious when she teased the audience by saying she would run for the Senate.
"But, just not this year," she added after the crowd cheered her announcement. For now she will seek re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives and do everything possible to elect a Republican to the Senate.
At that point the networks abandoned Sarasota to watch Jackson as he climbed atop his car and stood holding a big black umbrella while waving to fans. (And no, it was not raining.)
It must be fate. Who else but Harris would join Jackson on the national stage and so quickly get upstaged? Many Floridians thought she would run for the open Senate seat.
Democrats were salivating at the possibility of running against Harris, whom they loved to demonize during the 2000 presidential recount.
Republicans didn't want to face a ballot that included Bush and Harris.
It would have made great theater to see a race between Harris and former University of South Florida President Betty Castor, but many of us thought someone at the White House (probably Karl Rove) would break both of her legs if she moved toward the Senate race.
Her departure from the statewide stage, and her potential race against U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson in 2006, leaves former U.S. Rep. Bill McCollum, state Sen. Dan Webster, House Speaker Johnnie Byrd and former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Mel Martinez as top candidates.
If Harris decides to throw her considerable support to her old friend Webster, this race could really get interesting.
Besides Castor, the Democrats running are Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas and U.S. Rep. Peter Deutsch of Broward County.
Castor says she wants to be Bob Graham. But she doesn't have any of those little notebooks Graham kept so meticulously. She'll never be able to tell you what color socks she was wearing on Tuesday or what she ate for breakfast Wednesday.
Maybe she doesn't need a notebook.
At midweek Castor was whirling around North Florida and Georgia. Former U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young was among the donors who turned up at a Carter Center gathering in Atlanta, and local officials all around Tallahassee stepped forward to endorse her.
As she travels around the state, Castor runs into friends from her days as a state senator, education commissioner or president of the University of South Florida.
She says she is grateful for those who have stepped forward to publicly side with her. She noted the risks some of the legislators and lobbyists were taking to show up at a fundraiser at the Tallahassee home of Don and Janet Hinkle.
The crowd included familiar faces from Graham's last years as governor and a sampling of education people who once worked with Castor.
Castor's campaign has picked up steam since Graham decided against seeking re-election, and most political observers believe she'll be the Democrats' nominee in November.
