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Party speaks up more for Harris

The national Republican Party pledges support to Senate candidate Katherine Harris, if she wins the September primary.

By ANITA KUMAR
Published May 12, 2006

WASHINGTON - On the day that Rep. Katherine Harris learned she will face three opponents in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate, she received the strongest backing yet from the national Republican Party.

Hours before Friday's noon filing deadline, North Carolina Sen. Elizabeth Dole, who leads the committee that helps Republicans run for Senate, said that if Harris wins the primary in September the Republican Party would support her.

"I'll tell you, Katherine Harris will work her head off," Dole said Friday morning. "She is one determined lady. She will put all of her time and energy into it. She will work very hard to get the funding. The party will be there for her."

But Dole, head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which gives out high-powered support and millions of dollars, said it's too early to know what specific support the party would provide Harris in a tough election year for Republicans across the nation.

"That comes later," she said. "But I do anticipate that Republicans across the state will be supportive if indeed she is our candidate, including Jeb Bush."

In recent months, Republican leaders in Washington and Tallahassee including Gov. Bush, publicly declared that Harris could not beat Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson. They tried, but failed to recruit a big-name candidate to run against her.

By Friday's noon filing deadline, three other relatively unknown candidates qualified to challenge Harris.

They are LeRoy Collins Jr., son of former Florida Gov. LeRoy Collins; Peter Monroe, a Pinellas County developer who helped manage the government's savings and loan bailout; and Windermere businessman William "Will" McBride.

Tampa law professor Belinda Noah was initially listed on the Division of Elections Web site as qualifying as a Republican, but she actually qualified as an independent candidate.

"The primary gives us an opportunity to further demonstrate Katherine's commitment to the people of Florida and remind them she will be an independent voice for their concerns in the United States Senate," Harris campaign spokesman Chris Ingram said.

Florida Sen. Mel Martinez, a Republican, said he has supported Harris' Senate candidacy in the past and continues to support her.

"I believe that Katherine Harris is clearly the preeminent person in the field," he said. "While there are others in the field, I wish them well, but I really believe the reality is that Katherine Harris will win the primary."

In recent months, Harris' beleaguered campaign became something of a political circus amid widespread second-guessing by party leaders and her connection, though tangential, to a bribery scandal in Congress.

But on Friday, both Dole and Martinez said the race needs to focus less on Harris and more on Nelson.

"His voting record is more liberal than people realize," Dole said.

In a Quinnipiac University poll released in late April, 56 percent of those polled said they favored Nelson and 27 percent supported Harris, with 14 percent undecided. Fifty-eight percent of Republicans said they expected Nelson to win.

"She still has an uphill fight," Martinez said. "Any time you go up against an incumbent it's hard.

Nelson, who won his first term in 2000 with just 51 percent of the vote, was expected to be one of the GOP's top Senate targets this year.

Does Dole, who once tried to talk Harris out of running, think she can beat Nelson?

"I'll tell you what, six months is light-years in politics," she said. "Politics turns on a dime, as you know."

Harris went to Congress in 2002 and won re-election last year after being talked out of running for the Senate in 2004.

"In the next six months she'll be working hard, she'll be raising money, she'll be traveling the state and she will be determined and the party will be with her," Dole said. "Let's leave it there."

Anita Kumar can be reached at akumar@sptimes.com or 202 463-0576.

[Last modified May 12, 2006, 21:56:04]