Tag: Florida

Harris’ ‘Total Commitment’ to Campaign Short About $7 Million

Buck Banks

Short change: The “Miami Herald” reports today that Fla. Rep. Katherine Harris did not make good on her promise to place her entire personal fortune of $10 million into her lagging campaign for U.S. Senate. Harris, who is trailing Sen. Bill Nelson by double digits and whose campaign has seen a mass exodus of staffers in the past week, only deposited $3 million into her campaign account.

Harris’ smaller-than-expected investment could further hurt her credibility, already damaged by a staff mutiny, tepid support from leaders of her own party and shifting explanations about her campaign finances. Last month, she said on television that the $10 million would come from an inheritance from her late father. Days later, after persistent questions from reporters, she said the money would come from selling off her own assets.

Harris’ new campaign spokesman, Chris Ingram, said Harris will invest $10 million by Election Day.

”The plan is still the same,” Ingram said. “You start with the foundation, and then you put up the walls and the roof.”

‘If the $3 million is a down payment toward $10 million, she’s like any other good investor’
— Kellyanne Conway

Sounds more like she’s holding out, waiting to see if the Republican Party is going to stop picking on her and start supporting her. After all, why shoot the moon on a horse that might not even finish the race?

Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway said the party needs to stop questioning Harris and rally around their presumptive nominee.

”You’d be hard pressed to find any other Republican candidate — especially one who invests $3 million — who receives such scrutiny,” she said. “If the $3 million is a down payment toward $10 million, she’s like any other good investor.”

Big “if.” That’s the problem with Katherine Harris — it’s not just about investing money, it’s about being 100 percent invested in the campaign and willing to, as we say in Cracker country, “Root, hog, or die.”

Last One Out of the Harris Campaign, Please Turn Out the Light

Jon Ponder

Saturday mutiny: The floundering campaign of Rep. Katherine Harris, a Republican, to take the seat of Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat, took a triple hit yesterday when four top advisers resigned:

Congresswoman Katherine Harris’ U.S. Senate bid suffered a surprising setback Saturday with the resignation of her campaign manager, press secretary, media consultant and outreach director.

“I didn’t know I was going to get the knives in my back from my own party, and I’ll be honest, it’s infiltrated my campaign staff.”
— Harris

“I was told if I didn’t get out of the race, I would have an April surprise,” Harris said at a meeting at the First Baptist Church of Cocoa Beach, where she met with about 50 Brevard County Republican stalwarts Saturday morning. She said she could not verify who warned her.

“I didn’t know I was going to get the knives in my back from my own party, and I’ll be honest, it’s infiltrated my campaign staff . . . For too long, we have been undermined by people in our own party and staffers in our own campaign.”

Harris said campaign manager Jamie Miller, campaign spokeswoman Morgan Dobbs, director of field operations Megan Ortagus and media consultant Adam Goodman have been replaced by people who will be publicly announced next week.

“We have real professionals coming on board,” Harris said.

Former campaign manager Jim Dornan, who resigned in November, disagreed.

“She had the best people in the country. This is a campaign that is spiraling downward by the minute and the smartest thing for her to do would be to get out of the race,” Dornan said. “Katherine’s trying to run it and a candidate can’t run her own campaign. It’s foolish for her to try.”

The resignations follow a half-dozen others from Harris’ campaign in recent months.

“I don’t think we’ve ever had anything quite like it,” said David Colburn, a history professor at the University of Florida and the author of several books on Florida politics. “I can’t help thinking what the Republican Party is going to do.”

Meanwhile, recent polls show that the incumbent, Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat, maintains a healthy lead:

Nelson, who was targeted by the White House as one of five “red state” Democrats who might be toppled, remained above 50 percent [at 51 percent] in the Mason-Dixon Florida Poll.

[…]

Resurrecting Terri

Buck Banks

No rest in peace: A year ago today, Terri Schiavo shuffled off her mortal coil, ending a two-decades-long family saga that managed by turns to be tragic and ludicrous. There are two books out about the case, one by Terri’s husband, Michael Schiavo, and a competing one by the Schindler family. Now, a year after she died peacefully, blissfully unaware of the personal and political forces her persistent vegetative state had inspired, Florida conservatives are exhuming her for their political ends.

I received today a “Conservative Alert” (co-editor Trish does not understand how or why I subject myself to this stuff, but it helps to know one’s enemy, not to mention it provides content for the Review) from wingnuts William Greene and Randall Terry.

The letter begins this way:

It is hard to believe that today — March 31 — marks the one-year anniversary of Terri Schiavo’s brutal death by starvation. I’m still grieving over the fact that our elected officials allowed a tin pot dictator judge to starve an innocent woman to death.

Greene, who wrote the first letter, goes on the mention Terri’s “public execution” and her “struggle for life” as a way to introduce Randall Terry’s campaign for Florida Senate against the evil Jim King. According to Greene:

Senator King callously said, “I want her to die.” Senator King made it his personal mission to ensure that she was starved to death, and successfully recruited eight other Republican senators in his mission. If we had had just three of their votes, she would still be alive!

“We support the right to life! And that includes the right of all handicapped and severely injured people to live without fear of starvation!”
— Randall Terry, Republican

Then Randall Terry gets wound up in a letter that has no less than four — count ’em — four links to donate to his campaign:

Please understand this — the vast majority of the voters in the upcoming election were ardent supporters of Terri Schiavo’s right to life! Moreover, the vast majority of the voters in this district support the right to life of the unborn. My opponent, Jim King, is an ardent supporter of abortion on demand as well as the chief voice for Terri’s starvation.

I, on the other hand, am a strong supporter of the right to life.

And to add insult to injury — he supports a number of left-wing causes such as special rights for homosexuals, including the right for openly homosexual couples to adopt children!

And as if that is not enough — he is now under an ethics investigation for an illegal private plane ride to a major gambling casino in Canada. He is mired in scandal, and saddled with the burden of a record in the Senate that is against the values of the majority of the voters.

By giving Terry money, he says, you will be saying to the world, “We support the right to life! And that includes the right of all handicapped and severely injured people to live without fear of starvation!”

It was bad enough when the Florida legislature and Gov. Jeb Bush started passing laws to prolong Schiavo’s vegetative state, but then Senate Majority Leader and physician Bill Frist started diagnosing from the podium and George Bush came out of vacation to chime in to try and save the brain-dead woman. But for Greene and Terry to raise the dead in support of a hyper-conservative agenda is just, well, I suppose it’s just par for the course in a case that seems not to have a lowest point.

R.I.P. Terri Schiavo, if they’ll only let you.

Good News for Dems – Harris to Stay in Florida Senate Race

Jon Ponder

Fortune smiled on Sen. Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida, and his re-election campaign yesterday. His opponent, Rep. Katherine Harris announced last night that she will stay in the race, despite opposition from her betters, including the same White House cabal she helped install in 2000; a serious lack of donations; and charges that she took tainted money from DZM, the same bogus military contractor whose bribes put her cohort, Rep. Duke Cunningham, R-California, in prison:

Appearing Wednesday night on Fox News Hannity & Colmes program, Harris said she will personally commit $10 million to the campaign, money she said was left to her by her late father.

George Harris died of a heart attack Jan. 13.

“I’m in this race and I’m in it to win,” Harris said…

If her name appears on the ballot in November, it is expected to boost turnout among Florida Democrats who want to vote against the woman they still blame for “stealing” the 2000 election from Al Gore.

Harris appeared to be choking back tears as she discussed spending her father’s money on the coming race as a tribute to his legacy.

“When I lost him I said I would win this for my father,” she said.

I’m sure the late Mr. Harris did not get rich throwing good money after bad.

Has Rove Pulled the Plug on Katherine Harris?

Jon Ponder

The tea leaves seem to indicate that Rep. Katherine Harris will drop out of the race to unseat Florida Democratic senator, Bill Nelson, this week. This move seems to have the pudgy fingerprints of the White House politbureau all over it.

Harris skipped a GOP confab saying she was in seclusion “as I prayerfully prepare with my family, friends and advisors to finalize the strategy for a major announcement next week concerning my candidacy for the U.S. Senate.”

Rep. Katherine Harris fueled already rampant speculation about the status of her campaign for the U.S. Senate when she released a statement Saturday promising a “major announcement” about her future this week.

The Longboat Key Republican’s campaign is barely stumbling along after revelations that she took thousands in illegal contributions from a defense contractor who bribed a California congressman.

And while she has had little to say about the matter, many others are talking, including Republicans worried about losing the Senate race and Democrats emboldened by the financial and political woes confronting Harris.

It didn’t help when rumors circulated last week that Harris might not stay in the race.

In her statement, Harris acknowledged all the speculation, notifying Republican activists at a meeting in Memphis that she was canceling her scheduled appearance there Saturday night “as I prayerfully prepare with my family, friends and advisors to finalize the strategy for a major announcement next week concerning my candidacy for the U.S. Senate.”

Harris continued: “I will continue to look to our founding fathers, who pursued their vision with integrity and perseverance, to discern the best course of action for the state of Florida and our nation.”

If she drops out, who will take her place? One name we’ve heard floated about is Rep. Mark Foley, a notoriously homophobic closeted gay Republican members of the U.S. House. That would certainly liven up the campaign.

Katherine Harris Says Campaign is A-OK as She Cancels Stops and Grabs a Bus with Sean Hannity

Trish

While her U.S. Senate campaign rains down in chunks around her head, Florida U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris proves she can be as untethered to reality as the man she put in the Oval Office.

At the same time she cancelled campaign stops in Southwest Florida, Harris placed a conference call to supporters telling them things are so great, she�s practically picking out wallpaper for her new office.

She said television talk show host Sean Hannity is planning a Florida bus tour with her. “The campaign is really off to the races,” Harris said.

�Harris described a campaign on a roll and gaining momentum daily. She said prominent politicians, such as U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., hosted a fundraising event for her in Washington last week, proof all is well.

Back in the real world, evidence that Harris accepted bribes from the same defense contractor as California’s Rep. Duke Cunningham (whose new address is c/o Federal Prison, Taft, Calif.) continues to erode her already tenuous GOP support.

“She can’t hide and expect this to go away,” said David Johnson, a Republican political consultant�

Harris’ campaign staff declined to comment and gave no explanation of why Harris canceled the trip. They did not say how many other events were taken off her schedule.

Trying to avoid reporters is the hands-on favorite possible explanation. Harris has always had a poor relationship with the press, accusing it of doctoring live T.V. coverage during the 2000 presidential election swindle so that her makeup looked bad.

Once again, she claims the only problem is journalists.

“There is nothing to it except for the press trying to be negative.”

Yeah, that. And bribery.

[…]

At Last: What Total Lack of Separation of Church and State in America Looks Like

Trish

A bizarre town is taking shape in Southwest Florida, built by Domino’s Pizza C.E.Nutcase Thomas S. Monaghan. Monaghan will rule his town according to Tali-Catholic-ban guidelines.

Jesus will be hanging just overhead at all times, in case anyone starts thinking about doing anything that might lead to a need to prevent pregnancy

The pizza magnate, raised by wolves nuns in orphanages, is bankrolling the town called Ave Maria with millions of dollars, calling its construction “God’s will.”

Stores won’t sell pornographic magazines, pharmacies won’t carry condoms or birth control pills, and cable television will carry no X-rated channels, he said in a speech last year to the Boston Catholic Men’s Conference…

The town is being built around Ave Maria University, the first Catholic university to be built in the United States in four decades, which Monaghan also founded.

The community…will be set on 5,000 acres with a European-inspired town center. It will encircle a massive church and what planners call the largest crucifix in the nation, standing nearly 65 feet tall.

So Jesus will be hanging just overhead at all times, in case anyone starts thinking about doing anything that might lead to a need to prevent pregnancy. Of course, some people are wondering if it’s constitutional to do all this banning of perfectly legal activities.

“This is country club Christianity,” said Frances Kissling, president of Catholics for a Free Choice, which opposes the church’s bans on abortion and birth control.

Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, agreed.

While Simon notes there are religiously homogenous communities across the country, none can “wield governmental power along the lines of religious principle.”

The folks in charge of Florida are currently punting.

“The community has the right to provide a wholesome environment,” [Florida Attorney General and candidate for governor Charlie] Crist said Tuesday. “If someone disagrees, they have the right to go to court and present facts before a judge.”

Gov. Jeb Bush, at the university’s recent groundbreaking, lauded the development as a new kind of town, where faith and freedom will merge to create a community of like-minded citizens.

And I just love it when that happens. Meanwhile Monaghan has no qualms, but all the self-assurance of a true religious fanatic and extremist.

“I believe all of history is just one big battle between good and evil. I don’t want to be on the sidelines,” Monaghan said in a recent Newsweek interview.

No worries there, Tommy. You bought a seat in the front row.

Jeb Mum on Port of Miami Takeover

Trish

There’s an odd silence coming from Florida’s top executive, compared with other states threatened by port takeovers by the United Arab Emirates.

A Florida editorial declined to play up Jeb’s omission, but then again, it didn’t have to.

Sleep well, Florida. The president — and Jeb — have got your back.

The governors of states affected by the sale are raising hell, and rightfully so. They, along with congressmen from those states are threatening all manner of legislative and legal roadblocks.

The editors chose to ask even better questions.

But Tuesday, President George Bush vowed to veto any bill Congress might approve to block the deal. He told reporters, “This is a country that has played by the rules, has been cooperative with the United States, from a country that’s been an ally on the war on terror, and it would send a terrible signal to friends and allies not to let this transaction go through.”

Would any of our “allies” in the Middle East allow the United States to oversee the operation of their ports and its national security? The answer’s pretty simple. They’re not that stupid. What’s that say about us?

Finally, how would you like to be the resident of a state where the major international port is controlled by the Arab world? Well, you are. Operations at the Port of Miami are being sold, along with others in New Jersey, New York, New Orleans, Baltimore, and Philadelphia.

Sleep well. The president’s got your back.

Florida Republicans Up the Ante on Gay Marriage Ban

Trish

Having lost any claim to national defense (aka homeland security), fiscal responsibility, and limited government as core Republican values, Florida GOoPers are still hanging on to brand identity in one area: homophobia.

By many accounts the marriage amendment stands to mobilize religious conservatives who would likely vote Republican. Lee…said that has nothing to do with his supporting the party financing the effort

After sinking $150,000 of the $193,000 raised to put a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage before the voters this year, the Florida Republican Party is digging deeper. They’re throwing another $150,000 at the failed initiative.

Determined to get a gay marriage ban on the ballot for Florida voters, the state Republican Party has doubled its initial investment in the effort to $300,000.

State Senate President Tom Lee said the additional $150,000 came after Florida4marriage.org, the political committee working to amend the state Constitution, failed to get enough signatures in time to qualify for the 2006 ballot…

“I supported it because I know it’s an important issue to Republicans. I know it may not be more important than tax cuts, it may not be more important than property rights or whatever, but it is an element, just as the sanctity of life issues are an element of importance of our party,” Lee said.

Since gay marriage is already outlawed by the Florida legislature, Democrats think that what Lee really means is, “This is the only way we can get anyone who would vote for us to the polls.”

“It looks like they’re afraid they can’t win on the issues that actually matter to Floridians – issues like port security, offshore drilling, prescription drugs and class size reduction,” [State Democratic Party spokesman Mark Bubriski] said.

By many accounts the marriage amendment stands to mobilize religious conservatives who would likely vote Republican. Lee is running for chief financial officer but said that has nothing to do with his supporting the party financing the effort.

No doubt he’s just concerned that his own marriage will fall apart if gays are allowed to marry. Let’s see, there’s a law against it, now they want an amendment barring it…what next? A proclamation from the governor? Or how about statutes in all 67 Florida counties? Yeah, that’ll turn out the base!