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.
Josh Marshall’s site reminds us that Harris brought out loyalty oaths after the last wave of defections. Comical.
Move over, Tom DeLay. It looks like humiliating career denouements are in this year.
Krista
Oh dear…I had read it quickly, and thought at first it said “Katherine Harris’s Top Staff Balls“.
Mashall Applewhite
Her campaign is going very well.
demimondian
It’s really tragic that the Florida Republican Party couldn’t find a better candidate than Harris.
No, seriously — it would be far better for America if a competent Republican’s career were ruined in this race. Losing Harris only strengthens them.
The Other Steve
Harris is the best Florida GOP had to offer.
I think it’s interesting how just fucking utterly insane she’s coming out as.
It really makes what happened in 2000 look pretty bad for Bush.
Nikki
Why? He got what he wanted. I think it says more about the state of Florida politics and the GOP in general.
VidaLoca
I’ll plead ignorance about how this whole deal actually went down — but didn’t both the Florida and national GOP actually try to convince/pressure/force Harris not to run, realizing that it would be a train wreck?
My (outsider’s) take on this would be that she could have run for re-election to her House seat and at least had the advantage of incumbency. But Noooo… by running for the Senate she (and her party too) stands to lose the House seat and the Senate race. She personally stands to lose a lot of the $10 mil she inherited from her rich daddy. Her greed trumps good judgement.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
On the upside: great comedy. And she’s proud of “the girls”.
John S.
Florida politics are very, um, caustic.
Essentially, you have half the population dwelling in small pockets centered around Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Tampa, Orlando and a few other cities that are very liberal. The other half of the population spread throughout the rest of the state – mainly in rural areas, but also in some large cities – are fiercely conservative. And there you have it.
Imagine the inhabitants of New York City and Kansas living in the same state. That’s pretty much Florida.
HyperIon
John S. said:
Have you recently visited Orlando or Tampa? IMO it is a serious error to categorize these two cities as liberal in any sense. I grew up in Tampa and still regularly visit my parents there and my sister in Orlando. Every time I fly into MCO, I note how long it takes for me to hear either a racially insensitive remark or some moronic fundy pitch for Jesus. Typically about 15 minutes. Both of these cities are still mired in the stereotypes of the Old South.
And it’s not just about black folks; jews are also singled out. And north of Miami there is palpable resentment of the hispanic population.
But it’s the ubiquitious religiosity that is most sufficating to me. During an April 2005 visit I was amazed to see two variants of the “support the troops” magnets that explicitly conflated patriotism with christianity. In one the yellow ribbon was rotated vertically and the hole in the middle was the shape of a cross.
And don’t get me started on the anti-environmentalism. When I asked my physician brother-in-law (who was complaining about his $300/month electric bill) why he didn’t put compact fluorescence bulbs in his gargage, his reply was a genuinely puzzled “Why would I do that?”
I suppose if you only sample the tourist culture there, it might seem more benign. But don’t be fooled. The values of the Old South are alive and well in much of Florida.
John S.
Yes. Perhaps they are trending more towards conservatism now that people are pouring into those cities from the outlying rural areas, but this wasn’t always the case.
This is true. Which is why liberal and Jewish John S. lives in Broward county, safely nestled within the part of Florida which has moved beyond that mentality.
Andrew
I still don’t get why people want to live in Florida. Everyone there is crazy and the weather is only nice during the winter. North Carolina has better weather most of the year, and is far less insane. Well, strike that, I don’t want those crazies living here.
HyperIon
When I asked John S.:
He said:
But people are NOT pouring in from outlying rural areas. They are coming from out of state. And from more “liberal” states, I would think.
Look, I grew up in Tampa. It and Orlando were podunk towns in the 60s and 70s. Their citizens over-whelmingly supported segregation and I bet most of the native born still do. They just have to be more careful about expressing those kinds of views these days. I cannot tell you how many times during a recent visit I saw white folks look around nervously before lowering their voice to express the same kind of racist crap I heard constantly when growing up.
So I strongly dispute that “this wasn’t always the case”.
However, I do agree that Miami and Lauderdale are different. Mostly because that was the first area to be taken over by those damn Yankees ;=) and Cubans. If I had to live in Fla, I might be able to cope with Miami, except as Andrew says:
The real disconnect is between Broward county and everyone else. I don’t see much difference between Central/North Florida and South Georgia in terms of liberal/conservative.
radioleft
I hope Harris remains in the race and wins her primary. She’s doing so well that it guarantees she’ll be out of Congess.
http://blog.radioleft.com/blog/_archives/2006/7/13/2113861.html