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October 11, 2006 - Nelson Leads Harris 61 - 33 In Florida Senate Race, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Voters Say U.S. Is Losing The War In Iraq In the Florida Senate race, Democratic incumbent U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson has a commanding 61 - 33 percent lead over U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris among likely voters, including leaners, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. Six percent are undecided and 18 percent of likely voters who name a candidate say they could change their mind in the next four weeks. Sen. Nelson leads Rep. Harris 56 - 31 percent among registered...

Whenever the media establishment's long knives come out for a politician, I figure the person is doing something right – that he or she is a legitimate threat, that he or she is effective and getting to the enemy. That's the conclusion I came to after reading an L.A. Times hit piece on Rep. Katherine Harris, now a candidate for the U.S. Senate in Florida. It was an amazing piece of "journalism." Here are some key excerpts: "She's called for a Christian theocracy so Congress won't 'legislate sin.' She's lost a dozen key campaign staffers in the home stretch, advertised...

MIAMI -- U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris told a weekly religious journal that God and the nation's founding fathers did not intend the country be "a nation of secular laws" and made other comments that have drawn criticism in recent days. The Republican candidate for U.S. Senate also said that if Christians are not elected to political office politicians will "legislate sin," citing abortion and gay marriage as two examples in an interview published Thursday. Harris made the comments in the Florida Baptist Witness, the weekly journal of the Florida Baptist State Convention. The publication interviewed political candidates, asking them questions...

Open thread for anyone who has been listening to Katherine Harris on the Michael Medved Show today.

ORLANDO, Fla. _Rep. Katherine Harris said this week that God did not intend for the United States to be a "nation of secular laws" and that a failure to elect Christians to political office will allow lawmaking bodies to "legislate sin." The remarks, published in the weekly journal of the Florida Baptist State Convention, unleashed a torrent of criticism from political and religious officials. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., said she was "disgusted" by the comments "and deeply disappointed in Rep. Harris personally." Harris, Wasserman Schultz said, "clearly shows that she does not deserve to be a Representative . ....

24. If the election were held today for United States Senate, whom would you support, Bill Nelson, the Democrat, or Katherine Harris, the Republican? Bill Nelson 63% Katherine Harris 20% Undecided 17%

Finding inspiration from God, The Last of the Mohicans and The Lord of Rings, Katherine Harris told hundreds of conservative Christians Saturday that she is "a work in progress." Harris, who told a national television audience Wednesday that she would be spending $10 million to win Florida's U.S. Senate race, said she never would have entered politics if she did not believe that God wanted her to make public service part of her life. The Sarasota-area congresswoman's campaign for the senate has been in a free fall. She has struggled to raise money, and nearly all her top campaign advisers...

TAMPA -- Like that world-famous gambler, Lady Godiva, who put everything she had on a horse, Republican Florida Congresswoman Katherine Harris is betting she can use her personal fortune to buy a seat in the United States Senate. Maybe she can pull this off. And maybe a kangaroo will win the Kentucky Derby this year. In an act of political desperation and financial insanity, Harris announced Wednesday on the Hannity & Colmes TV talk show that she's putting $10 million of her personal fortune into her controversy-plagued, and currently-going-nowhere campaign for the Senate. There's plenty more where that $10 million...

In an effort to jump-start her sputtering Senate campaign, Rep. Katherine Harris went on national television invoking the memory of her late father and saying the money he left her will form the financial foundation of her challenge to Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson. Now the Harris campaign says that's not the case. Campaign spokeswoman Morgan Dobbs said Thursday that Harris will sell her existing assets rather than rely on money from her father, a bank executive who died in January. The Republican from Longboat Key appeared on national television saying she would use the money left to her by her...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Katherine Harris' U.S. Senate campaign lost what was left of its core team when a top adviser, campaign manager, and communications director resigned this weekend. Harris, a Republican congresswoman challenging incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson (news, bio, voting record), said Saturday she would introduce new members of her campaign early in the week. "We are stronger as a campaign today than we were yesterday," Harris said in a press release. Harris said her campaign has lined up people who believe in her candidacy, are committed, and support the "values of mainstream Florida citizens." Former campaign manager Jim...

Gov. Jeb Bush ratcheted up his criticism about the foundering U.S. Senate candidacy of fellow Republican Katherine Harris Thursday, saying he was concerned her woes made it difficult for his party to defeat incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson. He said he has not been asked to intervene in the race in any way, and Bush has emphatically said he won't enter the race in his last year as governor. Last month, Bush issued Harris advice via the media, saying the congresswoman from Longboat Key needed to make the race less about her turmoil and more about Nelson and the future...

- There are two sides to Republican Rep. Katherine Harris (news, bio, voting record) — one that attracts talented people to her, and another that drives them away. The stories from former staff members are consistent, whether they worked with her at the Florida secretary of state's office, in her congressional office or on her current campaign to unseat Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson (news, bio, voting record): The woman who was both celebrated and vilified for overseeing the 2000 Florida recount is smart, charming and energetic and works hard. She is also a micromanager, easily angered and sometimes bursts into...

39. If the election were held today for United States Senate, whom would you support, Bill Nelson, the Democrat or Katherine Harris, the Republican? Bill Nelson 56% Katherine Harris 24% Undecided 10%

A well-known government-watchdog group will ask the Justice Department today to investigate U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris' dealings with a now disgraced defense contractor accused of bribery. Common Cause wants to know whether Harris broke the law when she and Mitchell Wade met at an exclusive Georgetown restaurant in early 2005. At that dinner -- which cost Wade up to $2,800 -- Wade offered to hold a fundraiser for Harris and sought her help obtaining $10 million in federal money. Common Cause's director of ethics campaigns said there is sufficient evidence to suggest Harris submitted the appropriations request in exchange for...

The nonpartisan watchdog group Common Cause filed a complaint with the Justice Department Monday alleging that Rep. Katherine Harris violated federal law by seeking a $10 million appropriation in exchange for an offer of fund-raising support from a defense contractor. The complaint alleges that Harris, a Republican from Longboat Key who is running for the U.S. Senate, sought the appropriation for a counterintelligence facility in her congressional district after having dinner early last year with Mitchell Wade, an owner and chief executive of MZM Inc., a defense contractor who later pleaded guilty to bribing former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif....

In the latest poll on the U.S. Senate race, Republican Katherine Harris remained far behind incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson, indicating that her prospects of beating him are slim. In only three months, U.S. Senate candidate Katherine Harris has lost almost half of the Republicans who planned to vote for her, according to a new poll that suggests the congresswoman has little chance of unseating Sen. Bill Nelson. "This candidacy was an uphill battle to begin with. But it can't even climb now. It just loses ground," Brad Coker, director for Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc., said Tuesday. Were the election...

The smallest things would set her off. Buying the wrong candy for her to toss at parades. Photographing her vertically instead of horizontally. Failing to bring her favorite Starbucks beverage extra hot venti triple latte, no fat, no foam, one Sweet'n Low. One minute, U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris would lavish campaign staffers with praise and hugs. The next she would lose her temper, screaming "stupid" or "idiot" at a startled employee. "You never know what you are going to get," said Mike Miller, who left in February after serving eight months as her finance director. "Some days, it would be...

Metzler, who had been the campaign’s political director, confirmed late Sunday that he quit the campaign, but declined further comment. “I left her campaign and I wished her well,” Metzler said. He said the tree incident was “not necessarily” the reason for his quitting. He hung up when asked for further reasons. The tree incident occurred Thursday when Harris blamed the paltry turnout at a campaign rally at Orlando Executive Airport on the need to move the event because a tree had damaged the hanger in which the rally was originally scheduled. Airport officials later said no tree fell on...

WASHINGTON — Sometimes expectations can be fatal. You automatically go into a situation assuming, expecting one thing and then, before you know it, you're awash in disappointment and trying to come up for air. It can happen in relationships, business encounters and, well, political campaigns. Katherine Harris, the Longboat KeyRepublican and U.S. Senate hopeful, learned the hard lesson of expectations this week when she assumed she had the support of four Republican colleagues. Early in the week, she proudly announced on her Web site that Reps. Mark Foley, R-Fort Pierce, Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Brooksville, Jeff Miller R-Pensacola, and Cliff Stearns, R-Ocala,...

27. If the election were held today for United States Senate, whom would you support, Bill Nelson, the Democrat or Katherine Harris, the Republican? Bill Nelson 60% Katherine Harris 22% Undecided 18%