FLORIDA’S GOP JILTING HARRIS
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OFFICIAL AT CENTER OF ELECTION FLAP SEEN AS LIABILITY
By Jeff Zeleny
Tribune staff reporter
April 2, 2001
JACKSONVILLE - The line of autograph seekers snaked around two banquet
tables as members of the local Republican Party patiently waited recently
to share a moment with the most noted character of Florida’s election
fable.
There she was, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, embraced by
the rank-and-file Republicans who believe she deserves much of the credit
for President Bush’s victory. But now, in the aftermath of Florida’s
colossal political dispute, the state’s leading Republicans are keeping
their distance.
“People in this town are backing away from her,” said a key GOP aide in
Tallahassee. “The Republican Party can’t say it, but there are certainly
elected Republicans who would rather not be in the public spotlight with
her. It’s unwise politically.”
Harris’ office calendar tells the story.
The secretary of state was invited and then abruptly uninvited to join
Gov. Jeb Bush and members of his election reform task force as they
revealed their findings this month in Tallahassee. Minutes before the
event began, Harris said she was told by the governor’s office that her
presence was not needed.
Days later, as a thunderstorm pounded the state Capitol, Harris canceled
a news conference where she had planned to unveil her $200 million plan
to modernize Florida’s voting system. Her aides said Harris canceled
after the fierce storm kept her from giving a preview to the governor,
the Senate president and the speaker of the House. But the leaders’ aides
said they had no plans to attend the event, rain or shine.
“I think it’s very strange,” Harris said when asked to explain the
back-to-back jilting.
Nervous Republicans
To be sure, Republicans here are nervous. Even though the next state
election is 20 months away, the Florida Democratic Party is already
airing television ads attacking Jeb Bush. With those commercials in mind,
GOP political strategists say it’s dangerous for Republicans to align
themselves too closely with Harris.
Democrats, meanwhile, are savoring the possibilities for future
television ads, many of which are sure to feature Harris. “There’s a
whole lot of fodder out there,” said Tony Wyche of the Florida Democratic
Party.
Four months after one of the most controversial elections in American
history, Harris spends much of her time traveling around the state. She
delivers up to 35 speeches a week, giving Republican audiences a peek
into her thoughts from the election dispute.
The grandchild of a Florida citrus and cattle tycoon, Harris is a former
state senator and served as the state co-chairwoman of the Bush
presidential campaign. But her relationship to the Bush campaign was
barely noticed until after the election. Harris certified the results
that gave Bush a 537-vote margin of victory in Florida and thus the
presidency.
“From my rise from some sort of obscurity to notoriety, famous, infamous
depending on what side of the aisle you’re on, you learn the value of
perspective,” Harris said. “I certainly think I developed a sense of
humor. I used to not be able to laugh at myself. I took myself so
seriously. But at certain points you either had to laugh or go to the
22nd floor of the Capitol and find an
empty window.”
Though Harris is the state’s top election official, she is one of
Tallahassee’s few ranking politicians who has not been invited to testify
before election reform committees in the House and Senate.
It’s a vast change from three months ago. Then, one day after Vice
President Al Gore conceded the bitterly fought election, the Florida
governor and secretary of state stood side-by-side before a bank of
television cameras and pledged to reform the state’s troubled election
system.
“She’s either a heroine or the devil incarnate,” said Susan MacManus, a
professor of political science at the University of South Florida in
Tampa. “There’s not much in between.”
Political liability
Harris’ self-described lightning rod image is bad for political business
as the Republican-controlled Legislature tries to salve the raw wounds
from the 36-day election dispute that ultimately delivered the presidency
to Bush. Jeb Bush, the president’s younger brother, also is trying to
calm the political waters before facing a potential re-election campaign
in 2002.
And even though the secretary of state insists she used the law, not
politics, to guide her during the five-week election controversy,
political strategists say she is unlikely to shed the image she picked up
after the election.
Consider her introduction on a recent night at a celebratory dinner for
the Republican Party of Duval County. Toni Crawford, chairwoman of the
group, introduced Harris as the woman who “played a very pivotal role in
the presidential election” and “assisted” in the election of President
Bush.
From her seat near the lectern, Harris wrinkled her face and
cringed.
“I don’t think I assisted,” Harris said later. “I think I just did my
job.”
But as she began her 30-minute remarks at the dinner, Harris conceded
that most people do think she helped Bush win the election.
Even schoolchildren wonder.
When a group of 4th graders visited her
office recently, Harris said she asked the children whether they knew
what tasks were included in the secretary of state’s job.
“I called on one beautiful little girl and asked: What do you think the
secretary of state does, what are her responsibilities?” Harris recalled.
“She said: ‘You get to choose the president of the United States.’”
Now Harris must ponder her own future. When her term expires in two
years, the secretary of state’s position will be abolished and its duties
will be absorbed by other state offices, a move that was planned before
she sought the job.
Possible bid for Congress
Friends of Harris say she is leaning toward running for Congress in her
home district along the state’s Gulf Coast, where Republican Rep. Dan
Miller has said he will retire after this term.
“I’m not one of these politicians who plans and plots the future,” Harris
said in an interview last week. “Timing is everything. There’s no telling
what will happen.”
Despite advice from some Republicans who had encouraged Harris to step
out of the spotlight, she is promoting her election reform plan. The
centerpiece of her proposal says that by 2004 people will be able to vote
anywhere in the state, regardless of where they live, a notion that some
election experts say would be ripe for chaos and fraud.
If a bright side has emerged in the controversy, it’s that people finally
understand her job, Harris said.
When Harris ran for secretary of state two years ago, she said a woman
posed a vexing question at a Palm Beach fundraiser: “Why do you have to
raise all this money and run all over the state just to be the governor’s
secretary?”
“Now, at least everyone in the world knows that I do elections,” Harris
said.
