Bait-switch is hinted for GOP's Harris
By LARRY WHEELER
FLORIDA TODAY
WASHINGTON -- It may be a case of wishful thinking, but some Florida Republicans are contemplating what could be the most bizarre turn yet in Rep. Katherine Harris' beleaguered run for the U.S. Senate.
According to their speculation, Harris will withdraw from the race if she wins the GOP primary Sept. 5.
State Republican Party executives would then appoint a replacement for Harris, an option under Florida's newly revised election law. That replacement would face incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Orlando, in the November general election.
"I've heard a lot of chatter about that," said David Johnson, a Republican pollster and strategist with close ties to Florida's GOP.
The speculation includes a scenario in which the party's elite, still clinging to the hope of finding a candidate who can seriously challenge Nelson, would give the nod to whoever finishes second in the Republican gubernatorial primary, Johnson said.
Florida's chief financial officer, Tom Gallagher, trails the frontrunner, Attorney General Charlie Crist, by 31 percentage points among likely Republican voters, according to the latest Mason-Dixon poll.
Behind-the-scenes chatter heated up this month as Harris' campaign continued to stumble through another wave of staff resignations, a personal health scare and Justice Department requests for campaign records tied to a corruption investigation.
Al Cardenas, a former state party chairman who remains deeply involved in Republican politics, acknowledged that he has heard the speculation.
"I'm aware of it," Cardenas said. "People are trying to figure out all sorts of creative ways where the right candidate would emerge."
Harris represents a district that includes Sarasota.
Florida GOP leaders are reluctant to openly discuss the possibility they may have to step in and quickly name a replacement if Harris wins the primary, then withdraws from the race.
"The party continues to hope that come September, we have a viable candidate to take on Bill Nelson," said Jeff Sadosky, a spokesman for the Republican Party of Florida.
Harris appears immovable despite her campaign's lack of momentum and a lack support from her own party.
"The Republicans who don't support me have never supported me," she said Monday after an appearance in Pensacola.
She told reporters at that event that she has no plans to withdraw, especially after receiving a clean bill of health. A biopsy showed a mass removed from her ovaries last week was benign.
A campaign spokeswoman said she was not aware of speculation that Harris would resign after the primary and trigger the new election law provision.
"That's news to me," said Jennifer Marks, a Harris campaign spokeswoman. "The congresswoman is 100 percent committed to this race. We are completely focused and energized and looking forward to unseating Bill Nelson in November."
Last year, the Florida Legislature changed part of the state's election law that contemplates the withdrawal of a primary winner due to death, illness or any other cause.
In the past, a special election would have been held to fill the vacancy. But now, the law stipulates that the party has five days to figure out a designee and seven days to get that name to the secretary of state.
If the party doesn't get the new name to the secretary of state before the primary results are certified, the old, withdrawn name appears on the ballot and any votes cast for that candidate are counted for the new nominee. If they get the name to the secretary before then, the new name appears on the ballot.
State Sen. Bill Posey, a Rockledge Republican, said the change was not made with Harris in mind.
Recent history outside Florida offers vivid examples of primary winners who died before the general election, leaving their party at a political disadvantage.
"You can't deprive a party of having a nominee if their guy gets killed in a crash or whatever," Posey said.
In 2002, Minnesota Democratic Sen. Paul Wellstone died in a plane crash, altering the dynamics of that race. Two years earlier, Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan, also a Democrat, died in a plane crash while seeking that state's Senate seat. Carnahan's name remained on the ballot and he posthumously defeated incumbent John Ashcroft.
It would be more than a little ironic if Florida's revamped election laws were employed to replace Harris' name on the ballot. After all, she came to national attention in 2000 when, as secretary of state, she presided over flawed vote recounts in the contested presidential election and ultimately certified George Bush as the winner, giving him Florida's 25 electoral votes and the White House.
Harris is facing three relatively unknown candidates in the Republican primary.
LeRoy Collins is a businessman and retired from the U.S. Navy Reserve as a rear admiral whose father served as Florida's Democratic governor from 1955 to 1961.
Peter Monroe is a developer and former federal Department of Housing and Urban Development official.
Will McBride is an Orlando attorney.
