Florida Recount Official Harris to Run for Congress

TAMPA, Fla. —  Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, who became an object of national admiration and vilification during last year’s presidential election recount, announced Tuesday that she is running for Congress.

The 44-year-old Republican is aiming to succeed a retiring five-term GOP congressman in the fast-growing 13th District, which includes her hometown of Sarasota on Florida’s Gulf Coast. Observers said Harris should be a shoo-in in the heavily Republican area.

“She is not perceived as the ogre in that district that she might be outside the state, or among Democrats,” said Susan MacManus, professor of political science at the University of South Florida in Tampa. “Her national image and her Sarasota image are 180 degrees different.”

During Florida’s nerve-racking, five-week-long presidential recount last autumn, Harris found herself thrust into the national spotlight as her state’s top election official. Her rulings on the recount process were criticized by Democrats as highly partisan and she was depicted as a tool of Gov. Jeb Bush, the younger brother of George W. Bush, whose election was sealed by the Florida recount.

“In light of the recent tragedy, I am more committed than ever to serving the president and the nation,” Harris said in announcing her candidacy Tuesday, referring to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. “I can’t put on a uniform. I can fight for this president in another capacity.”

In Harris’ hometown and its environs, the proven ability of the cattle and citrus heiress to bring home the bacon as secretary of state and during her earlier 1994-98 stint in the Florida Senate have given her widespread, durable appeal that extends even to some Democrats.

“She’s running in friendly territory,” MacManus said. “These people knew her before Election 2000, and in a totally different light. I don’t see anybody beating her.”

Harris’ candidacy guarantees that even more national attention will be directed at Florida’s political landscape next year. Republican Gov. Bush is already campaigning for reelection. Former Atty. Gen. Janet Reno is seeking the Democratic nomination to oppose him, in what could either be a grudge match over last November’s results or a harbinger of the 2004 presidential contest.

‘This won’t be an election, it will be a national phenomenon,’ predicted Adam Goodman, Harris’ campaign spokesman. Current plans call for her to appear at fund-raisers as far away as California, Goodman said.

Shortly after the suicide terrorist attacks that Harris said inspired her to run, a Democratic gubernatorial hopeful, former Ambassador to Vietnam Pete Peterson, dropped out of the race, saying it was important to keep Americans united.

Bob Poe, chairman of Florida’s Democratic Party, acknowledged that the district where Harris has decided to run is solidly Republican. But he said the secretary of state has become such a “lightning rod” for criticism that a candidate from his party may have a chance.

“She will energize Democrats like no other candidate in the field,” Poe predicted. ‘We’re certainly happy and pleased about that.’

The presidential election aside, the Democratic official said, there has been plenty of controversy about Harris’ actions in her $106,000-a-year state office. Last week, she fired her inspector general, and the secretary of state’s office was skewered in a state audit for allowing employees to fly abroad in business class or first class instead of coach.

“There are enough revelations that continue about Katherine Harris that have nothing to do with the 2000 elections that show she is really not fit for public office,” Poe said.

As secretary of state, Harris has been presiding over a Legislature-ordered reform of Florida’s election system that has stilled some of the criticisms voiced last year. By November 2002, the use of electronic voting machines should be common, and the butterfly and punch-card ballots that ignited so much controversy are supposed to be history.