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Four qualify to challenge Harris in GOP primary
Miami.com ^ | 5/12/06 | Some unnamed individual at the AP

Posted on 05/12/2006 1:34:53 PM PDT by Joe Brower

Four qualify to challenge Harris in GOP primary
Associated Press
May 12, 2006

TAMPA, Fla. - Four relatively unknown candidates qualified Friday to challenge U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris in the race to win Florida Republicans' nomination for U.S. Senate.

They are: LeRoy Collins Jr., son of former Florida Gov. LeRoy Collins; Peter Monroe, a Pinellas County developer who helped manage the government's savings and loan bailout; Windermere businessman William "Will" McBride; and Tampa law professor Belinda Noah. The GOP primary is Sept. 5.

Gov. Jeb Bush and other Republican leaders have been looking for someone to take on Harris because she trails incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson by about 30 percentage points in public opinion polls. Bush said earlier this week that he didn't believe Harris could beat Nelson.

Monroe, of Safety Harbor, managed the liquidation of more than $400 billion in real estate assets from failing savings and loans while heading the Federal Resolution Trust Corp. Oversight Board in the early 1990s. Collins' father, considered one of the most important Florida governors of the 20th century, served from 1954 to 1960.

State Rep. Dennis Ross of Lakeland had said he may enter the Republican primary, but he did not qualify by the noon deadline Friday. Harris and Nelson qualified earlier in the week.

Calls to the candidates were not immediately returned Friday.


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Florida
KEYWORDS: 2006; elections; florida; gopprimary; harris; katherineforsenate; katherineharris
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To: pabianice
Can someone explain why Bush hates Harris?

Can someone explain why you went off on a tangent saying that with no evidence. It was Jeb that encouraged her to go for it and when us Republicans out here in the field start asking him to run, instead of her, he told us to let her go for it.

You are using liberal terms, perhaps without knowing it. The word "hate" is the key. Just because I don't endorse someone or vote for them doesn't mean I hate them. That's a liberal news media construction if I ever saw one.

21 posted on 05/12/2006 3:28:31 PM PDT by capt. norm (W.C. Fields: "Hollywood is the gold cap on a tooth that should have been pulled out years ago.")
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To: Neville72

I wonder how old that picture is. She looks a lot older now, although still attractive. It's hard to take her candidacy seriously when she advertizes her bodily features.


22 posted on 05/12/2006 3:51:47 PM PDT by ThirstyMan (hysteria: the elixir of the Left that trumps all reason)
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To: Columbine
She is far behind in the polls in Florida and in fundraising. She has had to put millions of her own money into the race and what happens when that is gone?

But this is stuck on stupid. There are hundreds of other races where the GOP has an uphill climb. Why is it only THIS race where the GOP wants to proclaim the candidate D.O.A. before she even has a chance to get going?

Her chances are probably better than Rick Santorum's or the black Republican in Maryland. Maybe we should have the GOP cry like babies that these other candidates don't stand a chance of winning. A great help that will be for the party!

23 posted on 05/12/2006 3:59:02 PM PDT by Tall_Texan (I wish a political party would come along that thinks like I do.)
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To: capt. norm
Just because I don't endorse someone or vote for them doesn't mean I hate them.

Thank you. I'm absolutely delighted that 3 other republican candidates have filed for the senate seat! I'm looking forward to learning more about McBride, Collins, and Monroe (as well as Katherine Harris), and having a real choice in the September primary. But whoever I decide to cast a vote for--that doesn't mean that I "hate" any of the other three candidates. It just means that I will be casting my vote for the candidate whom I believe will do the best (effectively conservative) job for Florida and the nation. It also means that, with the general election in mind, I will be casting my primary vote for the candidate whom I believe can beat Bill Nelson in the general election.

If I have that right to publicly support the candidate of my choice, and each of us has that right, then we cannot deny that right to Jeb Bush. As he is the most public and powerful republican leader in this state, I'm pleased that his is a viewpoint being expressed, with a focus toward success in November and in the future, not something that happened six years ago.

Me? I'm very glad that Katherine Harris did her job six years ago. However, as a Florida taxpayer (basically, one of her employers), I never felt she was "owed" anything but her salary and our appreciation that she performed her duties competently...certainly not some free pass or blind loyalty in perpetuity. While I am unimpressed with her candidacy for the U.S. Senate thusfar, I sure don't "hate" her.

24 posted on 05/12/2006 4:10:36 PM PDT by zerelda
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To: zerelda
Thank you. We need to be looking forward, not astern and condemning our own for what we percieve to be transgressions.

This whole thing was propagated by the liberal media to sew dissention within us and then cultivated by our own "conservatives" who believed what the media spewed to them.

To quote an old TV series phrase: "The truth is out there."

25 posted on 05/12/2006 4:18:10 PM PDT by capt. norm (W.C. Fields: "Hollywood is the gold cap on a tooth that should have been pulled out years ago.")
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To: Neville72
Thanks for your support.
26 posted on 05/12/2006 4:41:07 PM PDT by Joe Brower (The Constitution defines Conservatism. *NRA*)
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To: kenth
Gov. Bush and the rest of the Florida GOP are torpedoing her campaign, then sitting back and complaining that she's sinking.

If you lived here and were involved with the Republican Party you would know that all along it has been Jeb Bush that has insisted that we support her.

We wanted him to run for the senate and he told us to support her instead.

We have known for a while that she can't get elected here...it just can not happen. But we've been in deep denial and that's not going to move the conservative cause ahead one inch.

It's sad for me because I really want her to win. I have put my money where my mouth is and invested in her campaign and organized local efforts for her when we learned she had to start spending her own money on it.

We don't want to see her financially bleed to death and Bill Nelson get elected.

Jeb Bush was among the last to give up on her campaign.

27 posted on 05/12/2006 4:41:13 PM PDT by capt. norm (W.C. Fields: "Hollywood is the gold cap on a tooth that should have been pulled out years ago.")
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To: ThirstyMan

You just had a big drink huh.


28 posted on 05/12/2006 4:54:12 PM PDT by Unicorn (Too many wimps around.)
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To: NautiNurse

I thought he was a dem.


29 posted on 05/12/2006 4:55:32 PM PDT by Unicorn (Too many wimps around.)
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To: isrul

The FL gop sucks.


30 posted on 05/12/2006 4:56:16 PM PDT by Unicorn (Too many wimps around.)
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To: Joe Brower

Kind of surprising that Leroy Collins's son is a Republican.


31 posted on 05/12/2006 6:36:32 PM PDT by clintonh8r (Fake but accurate.)
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To: capt. norm; floriduh voter

I'm thinking, let the best one win the primary, then we pull together to do our part to support that "best one" in Nov so we have an (R) in the senate. No second guessing after this primary, no reservations, no what-if's. Jeb musta not wanted to run, for whatever reason(s).

fv, how about "Peter Monroe, a Pinellas County developer..."


32 posted on 05/12/2006 6:57:57 PM PDT by cyn
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To: clintonh8r
The Collins name is still very big here in Florida and the fact that he is a Republican gives me some hope.

We have been worrying, big time, as to how we can field a winning candidate. Our efforts, so far, have been to no avail.

What we need to do is sink our time and money into something that stands a chance of working.

33 posted on 05/12/2006 7:14:49 PM PDT by capt. norm (W.C. Fields: "Hollywood is the gold cap on a tooth that should have been pulled out years ago.")
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To: pabianice
>> Can someone explain why Bush hates Harris? <<

Can someone explain why you Harris supporters are so hellbent on insisting she MUST BE the nominee when she's 20 points down in the polls against an unpopular incumbent?

34 posted on 05/12/2006 8:45:08 PM PDT by BillyBoy (Find out the TRUTH about the liberal Democrat's FAVORITE Republican in IL ... www.nopinka.com)
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To: Unicorn
The FL gop sucks.

Is that your contribution to this discussion?

That's the kind of advice we need. I haven't figured out what made you post your "bumper sticker" on this thread in such a cheap, liberal-like manner (name-calling and retreat pattern) but it certainly doesn't reflect well on you.

That kind of graffiti is usually done with a can of spray paint, not a computer keyboard.

35 posted on 05/12/2006 10:39:18 PM PDT by capt. norm (W.C. Fields: "Hollywood is the gold cap on a tooth that should have been pulled out years ago.")
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To: zerelda; capt. norm
Thank you for your posts here. You two folks have contributed greatly to this discussion with your comments -- much light and a lot less heat.
36 posted on 05/13/2006 3:28:20 AM PDT by Joe Brower (The Constitution defines Conservatism. *NRA*)
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To: capt. norm
Captain,

I saw the following and wanted to add my two bits. Again, your comments here have been well stated and insightful:

"it has been Jeb Bush that has insisted that we support her."

I'm a member of the Sarasota GOP committee which meets every month here in Florida's 13th HoR district, and as a member of the rank and file, I never heard this, and neither did a lot of other people here.

" We have known for a while that she can't get elected here...it just can not happen."

Same thing here. Wish someone had told us. Seems like there's a communications failure there someplace.

"Jeb Bush was among the last to give up on her campaign."

It's just a shame that he put the knife to it as it did. As a long-time admirer of Jeb, this caught me completely by surprise, and negatively. He had to know that saying such was pushing the button labeled "media circus". He might have done things a different way, or maybe it was off the cuff and not thought through.

The main constant in all of these election cycles is the leftmedia "news", both TV and printed. God, they hate Harris. So even one mistake is too many, because those vultures will be pumping something like Jeb's comment for the next six months.

37 posted on 05/13/2006 3:38:32 AM PDT by Joe Brower (The Constitution defines Conservatism. *NRA*)
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To: ThirstyMan


38 posted on 05/13/2006 3:49:47 AM PDT by Joe Brower (The Constitution defines Conservatism. *NRA*)
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To: cyn
If he's a Pinellas County developer, no. He's for people like Donald Trump, not for average citizens. Developers are slapping condos up on every square mile that's left in Florida.

There's nothing wrong with Katherine Harris.

39 posted on 05/13/2006 4:27:48 AM PDT by floriduh voter ( www.tg2006.com Gallagher for Fla Guv, Harris for US Senate and that's all, folks)
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To: Joe Brower
Never heard of any of these guys. IMO, The RNC has a vendetta against Katherine and they'd put up a comic strip character against her if they had to.

Those names are all unknowns. Somebody's doing the smoke and mirrors thing on Florida's voters with these novices.

40 posted on 05/13/2006 4:29:28 AM PDT by floriduh voter ( www.tg2006.com Gallagher for Fla Guv, Harris for US Senate and that's all, folks)
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