Katherine Harris' Comedy of Errors
The former Florida secretary of state looks to be headed for a Senate primary win. So why is her own party laughing?
Considering how much ridicule she endured from political opponents during and after the 2000 Florida presidential election recount debacle, it's almost astounding that Katherine Harris would willingly put herself in a position to be the butt of more jokes. But as a candidate in the absurd political circus that has been the Republican Senate primary race, that is just what the former Secretary of State and two-term congresswoman has done, and she now finds herself imploding on the eve of the primary election next Tuesday, painted as a bumbling, Starbucks-swilling, intolerant party pariah.
It is only thanks to her unknown and ineffective trio of opponents that Harris, 49, is nonetheless expected by many analysts and recent polls to win the primary — before undoubtedly losing the November election to incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson. "It really has been a disastrous campaign of epic proportions," says Aubrey Jewett, political science professor of University of Central Florida in Orlando. "I don't think you've ever seen anyone fall from grace so fast in their own party."
How the normally disciplined Republican machine let their primary for such an important office turn into a laughing stock is grist for comedy shows and conspiracy theories alike. Abandoned early and publicly by both state and national party leaders — everyone from Jeb Bush to Karl Rove reportedly tried to recruit an alternative candidate — Harris's every campaign stumble and fashion faux-pas has eclipsed virtually all other issues, even her questionable dealings with Mitchell Wade, the defense contractor who funnelled $32,000 in illegal contributions to her 2004 reelection campaign and has also plead guilty to bribing California congressman Duke Cunningham. (Harris has said she is fully cooperating with the investigation into the illegal donations, and prosecutors say there is no evidence she knew they violated the law; Wade is cooperating with the investigation and has yet to be sentenced.)
Harris has incurred so many self-inflicted wounds that Democrats for the most part have kept quiet and stayed out of the way. Her campaign has suffered from two en masse walkouts of staffers who describe her as erratic and abusive to staff and who often go on to dish insider tales to the media. Her congressional office also has seen a lot of turnover. Harris believes she has been sabotaged by former staffers and the national party, who she said were "putting knives in her back," according to the Tampa Tribune.
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1531257,00.html
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