Harris says she sought jobs, not political cash

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Fri, Mar. 03, 2006
WASHINGTON
Harris says she sought jobs, not political cash
Her campaign dogged by ties to a defense contractor who pled guilty to corruption, Katherine Harris attempted to explain.

BY LESLEY CLARK
[e-mail]

WASHINGTON - Seeking to distance her struggling U.S. Senate campaign from a corruption scandal, Rep. Katherine Harris Thursday released details of a $10 million budget request she made on behalf of a defense contractor who last week pleaded guilty to steering illegal campaign contributions to her.

Harris, in a statement that accompanied the paperwork, said she ''never requested the money in exchange for any contributions,'' but rather to bring jobs to her Gulf Coast district.

But the release of the documents -- which the Sarasota Republican had previously refused -- could raise more questions about her relationship with MZM, a Washington-based firm with a Florida branch. The request to the House defense appropriations subcommittee that Harris made on behalf of MZM president Mitchell Wade was not part of her initial package, dated March 18, 2005.
(snip)

Wade's plea agreement signed last week notes that ''Representative B,'' acknowledged to be Harris, and Wade had dinner in ''early 2005'' in a Washington restaurant where they talked about a possible MZM-sponsored fundraiser for Harris and about obtaining funding for a Navy counterintelligence program in Harris' district.

And Harris' office has acknowledged that a member of her congressional, Mona Tate, left her office to work for MZM. Four days later, on April 26, the MZM request was filed.
(snip/...)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/14005239.htm

[truthisfreedom]

1. she doesn't know how to be a politician.

it's not about makeup.

it's about protecting your sources.

[EST]

2. Perfect makeup--

Tar & feathers, along with a nice, conservative pin-stripe prison jump suit.

[AlGore-08.com]

3. I am shocked, shocked that ReCount Dracula did something illegal.

/sarcasm

[marmar]

4. Awww, poor Cruella...

I'm crying big-ass tears... It's called cosmic karma, KH, and your's is a bitch. :think:

[DoYouEverWonder]

5. Has a former Sec of State in charge of FL elections

she should know better. She has no excuse.

[soup]

9. Her 'knowledge' of election laws

leaves a bit to be desired...

Mistake forces Harris to resign

The secretary of state admitted she failed to read the elections law, which requires her to step down to seek a federal office.

By LUCY MORGAN and JULIE HAUSERMAN

© St. Petersburg Times
published August 2, 2002

TALLAHASSEE -- Secretary of State Katherine Harris, the state's top elections official, acknowledged Thursday she failed to follow an election law herself and abruptly resigned.

It was a bizarre end to the controversial tenure of one of the most visible figures in the 2000 presidential election recount.

Harris said she made a mistake when she qualified to run for Congress last month by failing to submit a letter of resignation required of all state officeholders seeking federal office.

She said she didn't think the law applied to her because Florida's elected secretary of state post is being abolished in January. "I just made that assumption," she said. "I should have read the law. I didn't. I take full responsibility."
http://www.sptimes.com/2002/08/02/State/Mistake_forces_Harris.shtml

~sigh~

and then there was that slight problem with filing fees:

Friday, August 02, 2002

For those keeping track at home, this is the third time Florida's upcoming elections have been in the news recently, after it was revealed last week that the Secretary of State's office had given legislative candidates the wrong amount to send as a filing fee, so candidates had to send an additional $43.20 by noon last Friday in order to be on the ballot. Unfortunately, many of those checks and qualifying papers were aboard a FedEx jet that crashed and burned in Tallahassee before dawn on Friday.

The Florida Division of Elections claimed it was legally powerless to extend the noon deadline for candidates whose qualifying papers might have been destroyed or who were unable to get into the capital, whose main airport remain closed all that morning. Ms. Harris pressed Governor Jeb Bush to declare a state of emergency that afternoon and extended the qualifying deadline to 5 p.m. on Saturday for candidates who could prove the crash impaired their ability to qualify on time.
http://semitrue.com/2002/08/

~sigh ~sigh

> First, the state miscalculated the filing fee for legislative candidates. That triggered an 11th-hour scramble by candidates to send an extra $40.23 to elections officials in Tallahassee with two days' notice.

Friday, a FedEx 727 cargo jet crashed in Tallahassee hours before the noon deadline to qualify to appear on the ballot. Three crew members escaped with minor injuries, but campaign forms and checks for filing fees went up in smoke. The airport shut down.<

and where was Kat?

>While her elections office coped with difficulties such as charging candidates an incorrect filing fee, Harris helped announce a new Wal-Mart distribution center in DeSoto County;, greeted the Korean ambassador in Orlando; attended international trade meetings in Washington; spoke at an international conference in Orlando; and attended a fundraiser for her congressional campaign at the Washington offices of the Holland & Knight law firm.<
http://www.sptimes.com/2002/07/27/Worldandnation/Crash_adds_to_politic.shtml

~sigh ~sigh ~sigh

Flashback - Flashforward - there's nothing in her past to indicate she should know better:

>snip<
Leave aside the fact that, in March 2004, Wade personally placed 16 $2,000 campaign checks with the same date in Harris' hands. Now comes the disclosure that one of her aides, Mona Yost, left last May to work for MZM Inc., the company Wade owned. Further, Harris dined with Wade in early 2005 and then asked her Defense Appropriations subcommittee to set aside $10-million for an MZM facility in Sarasota. The subcommittee refused.>snip<

According to a memo by a Riscorp secretary: "Katherine's office called and asked if we could give them different addresses to list for each of the checks. All of the checks show the P.O. Box 1598 address and if they submit these the newspaper will probably make the connection and track them all back to RISCORP." Harris' staff changed the addresses.

Harris has generally expressed bewilderment in these matters. Asked in 1998 about Riscorp, she said: "It's really surprising. . . . We are all in it together trying to figure this out." Asked again in 2001, when she announced her run for Congress, she said: "I learned from Riscorp more than anything. I had no knowledge of anything that was going on."
http://www.sptimes.com/2006/03/03/Opinion/Dirty_Harris.shtml

~sigh ~sigh ~sigh ~sigh ~sigh ~sigh

Poor maligned Kat. She deserves an award... How about this one for starters?

The Top Ten Conservative Idiots (Week 28)
July 23, 2001

1. Katherine Harris

RETURN! Weeks on chart: 6 - We're surprised that Katherine Harris can even speak the words "fair," "consistent," and "evenhanded," without a lighting bolt blasting her into a pile of molten ashes, or her head exploding Scanners-style. Yet speak those words she did last week. And if you want to know just how fair Ms. Harris really is, check this new information out: 1) According to the New York Times she set up a GOP "war room" in her office during the recount process, and didn't appear at a single press conference without being thoroughly briefed by GOP strategists. 2) She pronounced throughout the recount that Al Gore was never once in the lead, despite her very own website telling a slightly different story. 3) She is as we speak witholding from reporters public information held on publicly-owned computers (although of course, she has absolutely nothing to hide). Harris made the "fairly, consistently and evenhandedly," comment in a statement from Buenos Aires, where she was on a "trade mission" (Ha ha! Read: taxpayer-funded vacation). She also suggested that the New York Times report fully exonerated her. Which goes to prove that she's not just a GOP whore, she's also a complete space cadet.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/top10/01/top10_2001_28.html

{i] and here's part of a speech recovered from one of those office computers WHILE she was Secretary of State:

"I have to tell you how great it was to campaign with Jeb (Gov. Jeb Bush, George W. Bush's brother) in the snows of New Hampshire last weekend, delivering Florida oranges door to door! The camaraderie (sic) and support we all felt was so positive . . . we hardly noticed the cold. We were working together for someone we believe in and felt wonderful. I want you to have that feeling too. I hope it will be "W'."
http://www.sptimes.com/News/080801/State/Harris_computers_show.shtml

Jeezuz, it just goes on and on and on and on...

[DoYouEverWonder]

10. I wish we could nail her for the 2000 election.

Especially when she wouldn't give WPB 5 more minutes to finish counting votes because she had to 'enforce' the law. Then she was an expert on election law, now she doesn't know shit.

[ShockediSay]

6. Legalize prostitution, bribery and

create jobs

{said she ''never requested the money in exchange for any contributions,'' but rather to bring jobs to her Gulf Coast district.}

[Rageneau]

7. I wonder if Diogenes could find an honest Republican?

Or if the GOP is like Sodom, with only one honest man in the whole place.

If so, who would that honest man be?

I can't think of a single candidate.

[Demeter]

8. Any GOP In a Coma Could Be Considered Honest

or at least, inert.