Free Republic

Republican Katherine Harris is spending money as fast as anyone in the nation as she runs for U.S. Senate, but she's still playing catch-up. By dipping into her own fortune, Harris has spent $2.1 million over the past three months on her campaign -- about a million more than she raised. Polls show she still lags about 30 percentage points behind incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson, who has $12.1 million in contributions. Harris put big money into early television commercials, beefed up fundraising efforts and has spent more on political consultants as she looks for ways to rebound from the poll...

U.S. - Rep. Katherine Harris acknowledged Tuesday that investigators probing a bribery scandal have sought records from her Senate campaign, but she denied suggestions by a former top adviser that she is a target of the investigation. Still, there were indications her campaign was increasingly involved in the investigation of former defense contractor Mitchell Wade, convicted of bribing a California congressman. Since the beginning of April, campaign finance reports show, the Harris campaign has paid $35,806 to a high-powered Washington lawyer, Benjamin L. Ginsberg, who specializes in campaign finance law. Harris retained Ginsberg, of the firm Patton Boggs LLP, shortly...

EAST PALATKA -- U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris said she is getting support in strange places in her fall bid for the U.S. Senate. Harris, the Republican who represents Florida’s 13th District, spoke at a Lincoln Day dinner held by the Putnam County Republican Executive Committee on Saturday night, saying House Democrats have told her they want her to beat incumbent Democrat Sen. Bill Nelson in their race for the U.S. Senate this November. “I’ve had Democrats in the House of Representatives come to me and say ‘You know, we’d really like to take the majority in the U.S. Senate’ —...

Five senior staffers quit the U.S. Senate campaign of Republican Katherine Harris on Wednesday. The departures struck a blow to a campaign that has already seen a revolving door of top managers, communications directors and consultants. Two Harris staffers confirmed that campaign manager Glenn Hodas; field coordinator Pat Thomas; communications director Chris Ingram; political director Brian Brooks; and deputy field coordinator John Byers left the campaign. Jim Dornan, who was Harris' Senate campaign manager before he left last fall, said he confirmed the resignations through a close contact within the campaign. The Harris campaign released a statement just after 7...

The high command of Rep. Katherine Harris's FL Senate bid plans to resign by the end of the week, two people familiar with the campaign tell the Hotline. The departing staff includes Glen Hodas, Harris's campaign manager, her spokesperson, Chris Ingram, and Pat Thomas, her field director. The status of Harris's chief fundraiser, Erin Delullo, is not clear. The resignations will take effect by Friday, according to the sources. TooConservative, a Virginia-based blog, first reported this afternoon that several staffers would quit. One person involved in the campaign said there was no single precipitating factor. "She's just very difficult to...

Katherine Harris gave her campaign more than $3 million to run for Senate, but then took back $100,000 to finish renovating her "historic home in Washington, D.C." her campaign revealed Friday. The campaign said that the Republican congresswoman would sell the house, if necessary, to fund her embattled Senate race to unseat Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson. The decision was immediately questioned. "I have never heard of a candidate taking money out of a campaign coffer like it's an ATM. It absolutely boggles my mind," said former Harris campaign manager Jim Dornan. "This is a woman who has completely lost touch...

Katherine Harris' floundering U.S. Senate campaign lost its high-level staff again this week and is groping for a message -- which doesn't surprise Republican insiders who trace the seeds of her trouble to the story of ``Joe's dead intern.'' This wasn't any old Joe. It was Joe Scarborough, host of the prime-time MSNBC show Scarborough Country and a former Pensacola Republican congressman who was courted last summer by national Republicans to run against Harris. But before he could announce he wouldn't, Harris called major donors and suggested Scarborough would have to answer questions about the strange death of a former...

— On the campaign trail and in her literature, U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris boasts that, as a freshman member of Congress, she passed the American Dream Downpayment Act, "enabling 4.5 million low-income workers to own their first home while growing the U.S. economy by $256 billion." Federal reports indicate Harris' claims are grossly exaggerated. A Government Accountability Office report issued June 30 found that, through 2005, only $98.5 million of the $211 million Congress appropriated had been used by local governments to help more than 13,000 low-income families buy new homes — far below her claim of 4.5 million. Harris...

(CBS4/AP) TALLAHASSEE -- U.S. Representative Katherine Harris is losing another member of her campaign staff to unseat Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson in the U.S. Senate race and more resignations are expected. Communications Director Chris Ingram says he's resigning to focus on his business. He said yesterday that he learned a lot working for Harris and wishes her the best. Other key staff, including campaign manager Glenn Hodas, and field director Pat Thomas, are also expected to resign by the end of the week. Harris said in a statement that she appreciates Ingram's efforts and wishes him well. She also downplayed...

U.S. Senate race In the U.S. Senate race, Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson leads U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris, his likely Republican challenger, 58 - 25 percent. This compares with a 56 - 27 percent Nelson lead in an April 20 Quinnipiac University poll.

Florida Senate: Nelson (D) 57%, Harris (R) 27%