Mentor: Bense to face Harris

TALLAHASSEE -- The man whom House Speaker Allan Bense considers a father figure believes Bense will challenge U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris in the Republican primary race for U.S. Senate, he said Monday.

The prediction by Charles Hilton, a Panama City businessman and Panhandle political force, came the same day Gov. Jeb Bush told reporters Harris cannot defeat Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson in November.

Hilton said that after talking with Bense on Monday, he thinks Bense's passion for challenging battles will drive him into the race.

"I see that look in his eye -- the look of wanting to stay in public life and solve the problems of the world, which is wonderful," Hilton said. "So, I think he will."

Bense, whose parents died before he graduated from Rutherford High School in Panama City, has credited Hilton for helping him begin a career that resulted in Bense's multimillion-dollar interests in various Panhandle businesses, including construction and real estate.

"He's the type of young man that every parent in America would like to see their son grow up to be," Hilton said.

Still, Bense has not made up his mind, despite Hilton's prediction, Bense said Monday afternoon, calling Hilton "my good friend and mentor."

Bush, continuing his escalating pessimism about Harris' odds of defeating Nelson, told reporters on Monday that Harris is "a good person; I just don't believe she can win."

He cited polls that show her trailing Nelson by 30 percentage points or more, as well as a litany of media reports, some fueled by her former campaign staff, that have delved into her relationships with a man convicted of bribing a U.S. congressman.

"There's no complicated reason," Bush said of his judgment of Harris' odds as futile. "She's not been able to gain any traction.

"With all due respect to the governor, because I think he's done an extraordinary job," Harris responded, "we can win and we have a strategy to do so."

Bense said he was exercising his "due diligence" with back-to-back phone calls to supporters and strategists Monday to determine the costs of a successful campaign before making a decision.

"I'm not implying I'm not worried so much about Katherine," Bense added, "but you've got Bill Nelson with a lot of money. So we're looking at how much money it takes. It's the root of all campaigns."

Nelson has more than $10 million unspent in his campaign account, compared to $3.7 million for Harris, a figure that includes her own contribution of $3 million.

Bense is feeling intense pressure from state and national Republican leaders to challenge Harris. Friday is the deadline to enter the race.

Harris officially filed her paperwork Monday with the Florida Division of Elections in Tallahassee, vowing to overcome dismal fund-raising and poll numbers.

Asked about facing Bense in a primary, Harris, accompanied by two campaign workers and a handful of supporters, said, "He's a really nice man. I would hate to run against him only because I really like him a lot. But I'm ready for the challenge."

Harris declined to specifically discuss a side effect of her decision to fund her campaign with millions of dollars of her own money.

By doing so, Harris invoked the "millionaire's amendment" established by Congress. Designed to prevent wealthy candidates from virtually purchasing an election victory with their own money, the rule would allow Bense to accept more than the usual campaign limit from individual donors.

Bush called Bense on Monday to discuss the just-ended legislative session and the looming deadline for the U.S. Senate race.

And Bush dismissed the idea that Republicans fear that Harris' presence on the ballot in November would only energize voting among Democrats still angered by Harris' role in the 2000 presidential election as Florida's secretary of state.

"I don't think that's true," he said. "Florida voters are pretty sophisticated. They discern the difference" between candidates "pretty well," he said.

"We're a purple state. Democrats can win, Republicans can win, I don't think anybody can take anything for granted

Apparently your are not a Floridian or you would know that Alan Bense is the speaker of our (strongly Republican) house.

He may not be that well-known nationally, but he's not running nationally...it's us Florida folks who will vote him in and YES, we are ready to do it, given the opportunity.

.\ You are correct. How many of us remember not so far back to 2004, when our then-Speaker of the House, Johnny Byrd, announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate (for retiring Senator Bob Graham's seat), and then used his position as Speaker to advance his personal political agenda, while pissing off nearly everyone in the state? Oh, sure, by the time the 2004 Florida Legislature general session was done, Johnny Byrd was a "well-known" name. VERY well known.

And in the 2004 primary, Johnny Byrd ran 4th of 8 candidates, with an impressive 5.9% of the vote (to be fair, Byrd was able to easily beat out more pathetic candidates than he, like Larry Klayman).

In our Florida House, at the close of the 2nd year session presided over by a Speaker (our Speakers generally serve a two-year term in that leadership positon), it is traditional for the members of the Florida House to present the outgoing Speaker with a memorial gift. Let's compare:

Allan Bense: a classic 1997 Corvette (worth about $10K), paid for solely by a collection among the members of the Florida House.

Johnny Byrd: a vintage guitar...and the state Republican party had to chip in to buy that, since not enough money for it could be raised among the 2004 Florida House members, who just felt Johnny Byrd had jerked them around.

Whether he decides to run or not, Allan Bense will be thought of as a man who focused on the business he was elected by the people of his district to do, and the business of the people of the State of Florida, WITHIN the State of Florida. If he does decide to run, that he didn't use his office as Florida Speaker of the House as some jive platform for his senatorial ambitions will be seen as a plus.

Katherine Harris' first cousin, J.D. Alexander (a Florida state senator) has already come out with an endorsement for Allan Bense. Now, I could understand why Alexander might be just a bit put out with his cousin Katherine, considering that she's spent the last 5 years (unsuccessfully) suing him in state and federal courts, along with the other cousins, aunts, and uncles, over a family estate/inheritance dispute. I can understand why the Alexander, Troutman/Collier, Milligan, and Hill Griffin III branches of Katherine Harris' family (Florida royalty--the descendents of Ben Hill Griffin, Jr.) might not be found on the list of Katherine Harris' senatorial campaign contributors (and sure enough, you won't find them there). But for a member of this closeknit (and ordinarily, closed ranks and intensely private) family to publicly come out in support of a candidate who might "potentially" oppose another member of their family for office...wow.

Allan Bense has a formidable rolling political machine poised to make sure that any person in Florida who doesn't know his name now, knows it within the next two weeks. Because Katherine Harris has been forced (through lack of outside contributions) to finance her own campaign with (so far) $3,250,000 of her own money, she has triggered the "millionaire's amendment" to the federal campaign finance law (which allows for individual and party contributions to Bense's campaign at 6X the level ordinarily permitted by law--for example, rather than the $2,100 individual contribution limit applied to all of Harris' contributors, Bense's individual contributors would have a limit of $12,600 EACH--while the limits for Harris' contributors do not change--that's a choice she made).

She's done, and she's done it to herself.

Glad to hear I'm not alone here. We have to field the candidate that has the best chance of winning and 'go for the gold'.

You're not only "not alone," you're standing with the vast majority of Republicans who understand that--for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is Katherine Harris' (valid or not) continuing ethics problems--that she is simply unelectable. She may very well be an absolutely wonderful person, but "wonderful person" isn't the name of this game, and it sure as heck won't be effectively played with a tight sweater, a horse, a simpering shimmy on H&C, or an abominably early political commercial (in which Harris' facial expression is much like that of a fellow, at the critical moment, in the proctologist's office, although at least she spared us all the gratuitous hooter shot).

Our current "space cadet", Bill Nelson, just will not do. What an embarrassment to the state of Florida. It's obvious to everyone that the 'cheese fell off his cracker' years ago and he just keeps shuffling along reciting talking points.

I agree completely. Nelson is vulnerable, in an election year where we need to take effective advantage of every vulnerable seat. It has nothing to do with Katherine Harris, specifically. It has to do with the balance of power in the U.S. Congress, and whether it is retained by the Republican party or not. While she could have (probably) retained her seat in the House of Representatives, she has elected to place that seat up for grabs in order to pursue a seat in the Senate which she cannot win.

I'm hoping that by the weekend we will have our candidate and bury any hatchets that may exist.

I hope so as well. I've got nothing whatsoever against Katherine Harris, other than the drain and divisiveness she is placing on the party. A 4-month, ugly, and expensive primary fight (Harris v. Bense) will serve no one but Bill Nelson.

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