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Harris: I'm in race all the way

Saying she'll put "everything on the line," Katherine Harris says she'll spend $10-million of her own money on her campaign.

By ANITA KUMAR and ADAM C. SMITH
Published March 16, 2006

WASHINGTON - In an attempt to salvage her sagging U.S. Senate campaign, Rep. Katherine Harris announced on national TV Wednesday night that she plans to pump $10-million of her own money into the race.

"I'm going to put everything on the line. Everything. Not just my career and my future but my father's name," Harris said. "It's going to take everything that I have and I'm going to put it in this race. I'm going to commit my legacy from my father.

"I'm staying. I'm in this race. I'm going to win," she said.

But her decision didn't dispel doubts from the Republican party and even her own staff that she can turn around her beleaguered campaign in time to beat Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson in November.

Harris' appearance on TV capped a rocky couple of weeks of uncertainty and second-guessing about whether she could or would stay in the race after she was linked with a national bribery scandal that put another member of Congress behind bars.

Republican insiders had expected her to announce she was pumping millions of her own money into her campaign. But even they were left guessing after two of her top advisers resigned this week, prompting renewed speculation that she would resign her House seat or drop out of the race altogether.

"Katherine Harris moves in ways so mysterious that the designs of the creator seem transparent by comparison," said J.M. "Mac" Stipanovich, a Republican strategist who advised Harris during the 2000 presidential recount.

In the past two days, Harris lost two prominent Republican advisers - fundraiser Anne Dunsmore and pollster Ed Goeas - the latest in a long line of advisers to quit her campaign.

Among her top advisers, that leaves only New York-based consultant Ed Rollins.

Harris, heir to citrus and cattle magnate Ben Hill Griffin Jr., said she will use money received from her father, George Harris, who died in January. She has struggled from the start to raise money, surprising her supporters.

"This is everything that I have," Harris said. "And this - temporarily - levels the playing field."

At the end of 2005, Nelson had $8-million on hand; Harris had $1-million. She loaned her campaign $250,000 in the last fundraising quarter.

U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney, an Orlando-area Republican who has been a close friend of hers since their days in the Florida Legislature, said he had expected Harris to have already raised $8-million or $10-million and to have closed the gap with Nelson to six or eight percentage points. "It's a little disappointing it's taken this long," he said.

A March 6-9 poll of 1,000 registered voters in Florida voters by InsiderAdvantage/Majority Opinion Research found Nelson beating Harris 45 percent to 23 percent, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Harris, a Longboat Key Republican, made her appearance Wednesday night on the Fox News show Hannity & Colmes, where she is a frequent guest. Sean Hannity, a conservative commentator, is a Harris supporter and plans a campaign bus tour with her in Florida in May. She did not answer questions from liberal host Alan Colmes.

Harris, the Florida secretary of state during the tightly contested 2000 presidential election, had planned to hold a news conference earlier this week in Bartow but scrubbed that in favor of the TV appearance. She plans to speak to Florida reporters in Tampa on Friday.

"Katherine Harris' latest theatrics are a desperate attempt to deflect attention from a career of blunders and failures; from her ties to one of the country's largest-ever bribery scandals; and, from the fact that she has no real support for her campaign," said Chad Clanton, Nelson campaign manager.

Nelson, who won his first term in 2000 with just 51 percent of the vote, had been one of the GOP's top Senate targets next year, but the problems facing Harris and the Republican Party have made him look less vulnerable. Polls have consistently shown Harris behind Nelson, and her instability has cost the Republicans valuable time in an important battleground state.

"We've wasted a month," lamented Republican consultant Rick Wilson, who has worked previously for Harris. "She's like the sorority girl in college who's always got the boyfriend drama."

Harris' campaign has suffered for months from weak fundraising, heavy staff turnover and a lack of initial party support. It took another hit recently when federal prosecutors linked her to a defense contractor at the center of a bribery case.

Despite Harris' announcement, Republican strategists are still questioning her viability and whether someone else could get in the race for the May 12 qualifying deadline.

Harris was worth about $7-million in 2001, according to state financial records. Three years later, she was worth $10-million to $39-million, according to her federal financial disclosure reports, which allow her to report ranges rather than specific figures.

The increase came after her grandfather died in 1990. Harris sold her family stock, worth between $5-million and $25-million, after a five-year battle among Griffin's heirs, including Harris' mother, Harriet, after his death. The five children divided the multimillion dollar estate.

These figures do not include money she inherited after her father, George Harris, died in January. His assets were reported to be more than $750-million.

Probate records in Polk County don't show how much she stands to inherit from the estate of her father. Nor is it clear whether she already has access to that inheritance.

Under federal campaign finance laws, kicking in millions of her own money could trigger a so-called "millionaire's amendment," which allows rivals to receive bigger campaign contributions.

But that will do little to help Nelson, unless Harris spent millions of her own money on the general election after the September primary.

Times staff writers Bill Adair, Wes Allison, Steve Bousquet and Joni James and researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this report. Anita Kumar can be reached at kumar@sptimes.com and 202 463-0576.

[Last modified March 16, 2006, 02:15:15]