Rep. Harris Keeps Drama High in Florida Senate Bid

In a bold, perhaps desperate, gamble to lift her campaign for the U.S. Senate out of the doldrums, U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris announced on a Fox News program that she would take all of the money she recently inherited from her father -- $10 million -- and use it to bankroll her campaign.

The moment of high drama was major news across Florida from a political figure well known for it, but whose latest political foray had attracted little attention.

And it was the latest twist in the career of the Florida Republican who became famous during the 2000 presidential recount when, as Florida secretary of state, she certified election results that gave the presidency to George W. Bush.

After two terms as a congresswoman representing the Sarasota area, Harris declared her Senate candidacy last summer. But by last week, she had not raised much money and was hemorrhaging staff. Some Republican leaders were notably lukewarm toward her Senate bid against Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson.

Last weekend, she canceled several public appearances, and questions were intensifying about her links to a defense contractor who admitted steering illegal contributions to her 2004 House campaign.

Speculation had mounted that she would pull the plug on her beleaguered campaign.

Instead, she flew to New York to tape an interview on the Fox News program “Hannity & Colmes.”

Invoking her father George Harris, a wealthy Central Florida banker who died of a heart attack in January, Harris said in a voice laden with emotion, “When I lost him, I said I would win this for my father.”

The unexpected move was vintage Harris, said political science professor Susan MacManus of the University of South Florida. “She’s always been a great poker player. Kept a straight face, and then laid down a flush.”

MacManus said Harris’ decision to use her own money would attract attention and serve as a catalyst for other donors.

According to Democratic sources, Harris’ $10 million would put her roughly neck-and-neck financially with Nelson, whose reelection campaign expects to announce a war chest of about $10 million by March 31.

Some political observers said that Harris’ effort to revive her campaign might be too little, too late. A statewide opinion poll released Wednesday showed her running 20 percentage points behind Nelson.

Among Democrats nationwide, Harris is notorious for her role in the controversial 2000 election. Her move to salvage her candidacy could conceivably backfire by galvanizing outraged Democrats to contribute to Nelson.

At the incumbent’s campaign headquarters in Orlando, officials said Thursday that they were unfazed by Harris’ decision. “We saw a week of theatrics building up to last night’s anticlimactic moment,” said Chad Clanton, Nelson’s campaign manager. “We’ve always said it was going to be a long, hard-fought battle, but we’ll be ready.”

Lance deHaven-Smith, professor of public administration at Florida State University, said: “The campaign is in real trouble. This may salvage it. But that’s the situation. It has to be salvaged.”

And although $10 million might sound like a lot of money, DeHaven-Smith said, in Florida, it costs $2 million a day to wage a statewide television and radio advertising blitz campaign from Pensacola to the Keys. So Harris’ inheritance would buy her, at most, five days of airtime.

“Her campaign is on life support and needs an infusion of money badly,” DeHaven-Smith said. “Even if she’s committed to spending her own money, that doesn’t necessarily bring in campaign contributions.”

Harris, whose grandfather, Ben Hill Griffin Jr., was one of Florida’s biggest citrus and cattle barons, has been banking on a series of “grassfire” meetings with voters in all 67 counties to reshape her image and help put disputes over the 2000 election behind her.

In January, Gov. Jeb Bush pledged his “strong support” to her. But as early as last year, some Republican strategists were hunting for potential alternatives, including state House Speaker Allan G. Bense, who was invited to the White House.

“The Florida Republican Party will continue to support Katherine Harris,” said Jeff Sadosky, party spokesman in Tallahassee. “She is our candidate in the race to unseat Bill Nelson.”

But even after Harris’ announcement, some party figures, including Tallahassee strategist Mac Stipanovich, who served as an unpaid advisor to Harris during the 2000 presidential recount, expressed doubts that she could win over enough Democratic and undecided voters to defeat Nelson.

In recent weeks, Harris has been in the news because a defense contactor who sought $10 million in federal aid admitted making illegal donations to her most recent House campaign.

On Wednesday, Harris said she hadn’t known the $32,000 she received was illegal, and that the money had been given to Habitat for Humanity.

Mitchell Wade, the contractor, has pleaded guilty to making payments to former U.S. Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-Rancho Santa Fe), who was sent to prison this month for bribery.

On Thursday, Clanton accused Harris of trying to use her appearance on cable television to “distract from the fact that she has ties to one of the country’s largest bribery scandals in Congress.”

Passions aroused by Harris have been so intense that she has been mocked by her opponents for her hairstyle, sometimes flamboyant style of dress and use of mascara. Her fans, in contrast, adore her as saving the country from a Democratic presidency.

But she has never won the loyalty of the inner circle of state Republicans, and has been described as imperious and out of touch with many Floridians.

For her Wednesday interview, Harris wore a white turtleneck, coral lipstick and only a touch of eye makeup. Her face seemed pale and drawn.

“I’m staying. I’m in this race. I’m going to win,” Harris said. “I’m going to put everything on the line.”