Harris holds on in GOP primary
MIAMI – Shunned by party leaders and battered by repeated campaign controversies, Rep. Katherine Harris nonetheless held onto enough support from the state’s Republican voters Tuesday to win Florida’s Senate primary convincingly over three little-known candidates.
It was in many ways an embarrassing result for state GOP leaders, who had urged the former Florida secretary of state, a polarizing figure since her role in the 2000 presidential election recount, not to run.
Harris now faces Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson in a race that strategists have said may be impossible for her to win. Polls have shown Nelson with a lead of as many as 30 percentage points.
“The die-hard Republican voters, they love her,” said Jennifer Duffy, editor of the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan election newsletter. “They think she got a bum rap in 2000.”
But Harris is far less popular in other circles, and often a target of ridicule for her fashion and sometimes erratic pronouncements. So while Republicans had targeted Nelson as vulnerable a year ago, his seat is now deemed relatively safe.
“There is probably not a Senate race in the country that is more of a lost opportunity than this one,” Duffy said.
Before the filing deadline in May, GOP leaders sought to recruit other high-profile candidates for the Senate race, including Florida House Speaker Allan Bense, former congressman Joe Scarborough, now a television host, and Rep. Mark Foley.
“I just don’t believe she can win,” Republican Gov. Jeb Bush told reporters at the time.
But the recruiting efforts failed, and on Tuesday Harris faced off against Orlando lawyer Will McBride; LeRoy Collins Jr., a retired Navy admiral and the son of a former popular governor; and Peter Monroe, a developer. None of her rivals is well known in the state.
The Harris campaign stumbled repeatedly during the run-up to the election. Fundraising fell short, prompting Harris to pledge $10 million of her own money. News stories linked her to a defense contractor convicted of bribing then-Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, R-Calif. And staff members repeatedly quit, sometimes citing her alternately abusive and flirty behavior.
Most recently, she was criticized for calling separation of church and state “a lie we have been told,” and angered many by saying: “If you’re not electing Christians, then in essence you are going to legislate sin.”
But with 75 percent of precincts reporting in the winner-take-all primary, Harris had 50 percent of votes, McBride 30 percent, Collins 15 percent and Monroe 5 percent.