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Harris calls Nelson 'an empty suit'

As she tries to rev up her campaign with a North Florida tour, Harris says her opponent is "all talk and no action."

By BILL ADAIR
Published April 20, 2006

GAINESVILLE - Rep. Katherine Harris called Sen. Bill Nelson "an empty suit" and said he spends too much time grandstanding.

Harris, a Longboat Key Republican who is running against Nelson, described him as "all talk and no action." She said he should worry less about getting on TV and more about passing bills that help Floridians.

"I think he grandstanded on offshore oil drilling," Harris said in an interview with the St. Petersburg Times during a campaign tour of North Florida. "He comes up with this inane bill that accomplishes nothing, that he knows is dead on arrival from the onset, but uses that to grandstand as though it is some solution, even though it was drafted poorly."

She was referring to Nelson's bill with Republican Sen. Mel Martinez that would ban oil drilling within 230 miles of Florida's West coast. It was introduced with fanfare in February but has failed to get many Republican co-sponsors. Harris said Nelson should have supported a less-sweeping compromise last fall that would have banned drilling within 120 miles of the coast unless the Florida Legislature agreed to allow it closer.

Harris said that as a member of Congress, she focuses more on results than media coverage. "I don't have to have newspapers and camera crews going along with me. I think it's important that you just do your job."

Nelson, a baritone-voiced former insurance commissioner, has battled the derogatory label for years. A March 1990 cover story in Florida Trend magazine was headlined "Why Big Business Likes Bill Nelson - But Is He an Empty Suit?"

Harris attributed the "empty suit" remark to former Gov. Lawton Chiles, but a search of newspaper and magazine archives found no evidence that Chiles said it. The comment seems to have come from J.M. "Mac" Stipanovich in 1990 when he was managing Gov. Bob Martinez's re-election campaign.

Asked about Harris' comments Wednesday, Nelson spokesman Dan McLaughlin called them "empty charges from an empty candidate with absolutely no ethics or credibility."

McLaughlin said the Nelson-Martinez drilling bill is "really the more substantive bill in the Senate as it pertains to keeping oil rigs away from all the coastal states, including the state of Florida." He said the lack of GOP support is partly due to Harris, who has "tried to block Republican sponsors because she fears it hurts her campaign."

Harris is trying to regain momentum with her trip through North Florida. Her campaign was hobbled by the resignations of several top aides and the polls show her lagging far behind Nelson.

She is visiting Gainesville, Jacksonville and Tallahassee in a five-day swing that concludes Saturday. A poster inside her campaign RV states: "INTEGRITY-LOYALTY-DEDICATION-STRENGTH-HONOR-ENTHUSIASM? WIN!"

She has primarily been speaking to Republican audiences and relying on perennial GOP favorites such as tax cuts and tax reform, with lots of liberal-bashing. She offered extensive praise for Gov. Jeb Bush, calling him "the best governor in the United States of America."

She said Congress - especially the House - has done a good job of cutting taxes but now needs to focus more on reducing federal spending. "We have to live up to our values, our platform, and cut spending and be accountable and responsible with how we spend your money," she said."

She did not offer specifics on that issue or others, but said she will have a detailed platform later in the campaign.

In an effort to turn the tables on members of the Republican establishment who have qualms about her candidacy, she portrayed herself as an independent thinker. "I am not beholden to anyone that is going to pressure me from the media or Washington or anyone else. I am beholden to you," she told the GOP activists.

About 90 people came to see her at a spaghetti dinner Tuesday night at the Inglis-Yankeetown Republican Club - so many that the organizers ran out of salad and green beans. A Wednesday morning speech in Micanopy drew only a dozen people. Both groups gave her a warm welcome and the Inglis group gave her a couple of standing ovations.

Several Republican activists at the speeches said the congresswoman made a better impression in person than she did in her TV appearances.

"It was wonderful to see her in person," said Pat Fulmer, 67, of Cedar Key. "She doesn't come across as well on television."

Times researcher Angie Drobnic Holan contributed to this report.Bill Adair can be reached at 202 463-0575 or adair@sptimes.com

[Last modified April 20, 2006, 01:59:43]