Katherine Harris, continued

The BBQ Pit
1

OK so we have this character down in here in Florida - Katherine Harris?

She’s a multimillionaire heiress of Florida land baron Ben Hill Griffin - she and her family continue to feud in court over shares of the pie - and has been Gov. Jeb Bush’s Secretary of State, among other things responsible for ensuring the law is followed pertaining to elections. You may remember her as a player in the outcome of the 2000 election, which has spawned many threads of inquiry, not all of it complimentary. Here’s an article from two weeks ago.

http://www.sptimes.com/News/071701/State/Vote_controversy_turn.shtml

“As the chief state elections officer, Harris advises county election supervisors and interprets the sometimes fuzzy clauses in the state elections code.”

So then this Fedex plane crashed and burned in Tallahassee, one week ago, complicating the campaign filing deadline in Florida:

http://www.sptimes.com/2002/07/27/Worldandnation/Crash_adds_to_politic.shtml

Harris extended the deadline for candidates (days earlier, she unexpectedly made them pay an extra $43 to file), in violation of Florida law but with the OK of Jeb Bush.

With me so far? Now check this out:

http://www.sptimes.com/2002/08/02/State/Mistake_forces_Harris.shtml

My favorite part of that article begins with: “As reporters questioned the legality of her actions during the two weeks since she was technically out of office, aides stepped in and began hustling her out of the room.”

This should be interesting. She’s got major problems all of a sudden, but I would say that she brought it all on herself. This should be interesting.

2

And the Great Debate is… ?

3

Um…this is the Pit, Bricker. Although, that rant more or less sucked. Where’s the hate? The vitriol?

Try it again from the top, RTA. And this time, I want passion.

4

Katherine Harris has a big lead in the polls.

She will win in a landslide.

Go, pubbies!

5

December, do you have a link for those polls results (assuming you didn’t hear of them on radio or TV)? I’m having no luck with Google searches.

6

Pubbies???

7

Republicans, I assume. I hope this nickname catches on, because the typos could be amusing.

8

december is actually proud to have this person as one of his party’s leaders.

Yes, I know this the Pit, but that fact is just too sad to rant about.

9

She has a big lead in the poll because she is running for the United States House of Representatives in a district drawn especially as a reward for her. While I certainly applaud conservatism everywhere, the Bushes should be very careful of this woman, who at best is an idiot.

10

You mean, it’s not a requirement?

11

Of course Katherine Harris may very well win, despite the rabid fervor of her opposition, which includes the rapidly-growing “Anybody but Katherine” movement. Why? Simple - she’s outspending her opponents by millions and millions, a lot of it from out-of-state.

Plus the district - the Sarasota area - is chock-full of old, bitter, selfish, Lawrence-Welk-lovin’, scared-of-minorities-and-their-crimes senior citizens who retire, move to Florida, then decide they don’t want to pay any taxes to help maintain schools (they don’t go) and roads (they don’t drive much) etc … in other words, diehard GOP voters.

In a way, I hope she makes it to Congress because it is a great opportunity to share this shallow, venal, airheaded, self-righteous, self-serving, toadying, celebrity-hungry, hagged-out, clown-makeup-wearing, rich-bitch crone with the rest of the USA. Not that she’ll actually do anything interesting, just another rubber-stamp for the right-wing agenda, loyally marking time until she can score her dream job - Ambassador to Sweden (honestly - that’s her expressed goal). Maybe induce a few seizures among C-SPAN viewers, but that’s about it.

But I just thought it was rueful-funny-ironic that the decisive figure in the 2000 election, who billed herself as some kind of watchman on the walls of Florida electoral law, painted as some kind of “hero” because she’s “brave enough” to make the “moral decision” to “follow the law when it counts”, turns out to have only a nodding acquaintance with the law at best. Or, when pressed, the only spin she’s got is to say - and with a straight face, even - that she didn’t think the law applies to HER! (Sorry for not being more clear, I thought it was obvious.)

It all helps to put her actions of 2000 - when she served as W’s FL campaign chairman, then refused to recuse herself for critical recount decisions - in a historical context.

Now let’s see those hard drives, dearie … mwahahaha!!

12

Hey! I though you were talking about Mr. Trafficant, here!

It’s just entropy in action. Trafficant leaves, she oozes in to take his place.

13

Cool - I hope it’s 95% Republican. Pack them conservatives in there, and make them cringe as they pull the lever this fall! :smiley:

And best of all, that necessarily makes other districts less Republican. :):):slight_smile:

I’d so love to be the Democrat running against her. But this business of not being a Florida resident kinda gets in the way. :slight_smile:

14

You heard it here first folks, there are no old Democrats or Libertarians and for that matter AIP’ers.
:smack: I KNEW IT!!!

15

Wisdom comes with age and experience. :slight_smile:

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So does senility.

:slight_smile:

17

You are penalized 5 points for excessive use of smileys. No more then one smiley per sentence is allowable.

18

The district wasn’t drawn for her. Florida drew its two new districts for the Speaker of the State House and the chair of the Senate Redistricting Committee (It also drew one held by a Democrat to help the State Senate President Pro Tem). Congressman Dan Miller said in 1992 he’d only serve 5 terms (I’m not even sure if Harris was even in public office then). Now he’s abiding by that, more than you can say for some people in Congress such as Rep. George Nethercutt (R-WA04), who unseated Tom Foley partially by saying he’d only serve 3 terms. Back to the issue at hand, the district wasn’t altered all that much, I think they might’ve taken part out to help the Senate Redistricting Committee chair, but Harris’s office is being eliminated, she wanted to stay in politics, and it was an opportunity for her to seize upon. December, no formal polls have been done, but that’s because statistically she’s a shoo-in because it has gone so heavily for Republicans in the past.

Ironically, Florida’s AG (a Democrat) had a similar problem when he announced he’d run for State Senate. Originally, this meant GOPers wouldn’t press for his candidacy, but if Dems are going to strike at Harris they might do the same to him.

If Harris’s candidacy is invalidated there might be an interesting outcome. The man who’d win the GOP primary (the only other person running) refuses to raise money from outside the district, according to his website www.electhill.com. Dems could try to pour money in. The disparity between the parties is wide, but with enough money who knows what could happen. I’m not that familiar with Florida election law (well, after 2000 we all are, but I’m not familiar with the pertinent area), but I’m not sure if the Resign-to-run law means you can’t win the primary with a write-in candidacy then become a candidate after it (keep in mind that the primary is September 10 and Harris resigned last week).

Of course, the Supreme Court likes her so much that she could just appeal to them and they’d let her run :stuck_out_tongue:

The “pubbies” are just keeping an R district in the R column with this election, and with the decline in competitive districts due to redistricting (only about 50 could change hands this election), this is becoming increasingly common. The Florida 13th district isn’t on the DCCC or NRCC (the two parties’ house campaign committees) radar screen when it comes to control of the House, and I’d wager it would stay that way.

19

[hijack]I used to work for her Dad.[/hijack]

20

I was just speaking with Ion Sancho (FL Supervisor of Elections) about this…I’ve rarely seen someone so animated.
Essentially, the law is that when someone is running for Congress, they may not hold any other job. When she announced her candidacy, she fucked up, big-time. But it won’t hamper her ability to run for Congress.

[sub] And, according to Sancho, Gore won Florida. By around 850 votes. Right from the horse’s mouth, folks![/sub]