Still in it

Katherine Harris is still running for the Florida US Senate seat currently held by Bill Nelson that will be up this November. Last week Congresswoman Harris had left hints she may be withdrawing instead. Harris said she would spend 10 million of her own money in order to unseat Nelson.

I have to agree with Dr. Taylor, this will be one big waste of money in all likelihood. Harris campaign has been going nowhere, the State GOP even wishes another candidate is running. I'll vote for her, but I still predict Nelson wins in the fall. He could well garner 60% of the vote even if Harris spends as much as she proposes.

Also commenting- Peer Review FL, Outside the Beltway,
Open Post- Bright & Early, Right Wing Nation,

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Katherine Harris used a national television audience Wednesday night to try to jump-start her faltering U.S. Senate campaign, announcing that she will pour $10 million of her personal fortune into the race.

Harris' appearance on the Fox News program Hannity & Colmes capped weeks of speculation about whether she would drop out of the race against Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., because of problems with fundraising, staff turnover and the fallout from her acceptance of illegal campaign contributions.

Harris, an unpopular choice among Republican Party leaders who tried to recruit other candidates to run, kept her decision mostly to herself until Wednesday night.

"Let me just answer the burning question: I'm in this race and going to win," said Harris, who pledged what she described as her "legacy" from her father, George Harris, a banker who died in January.

"I'm going to commit my legacy from my father: $10 million," she said. "This is everything I have."

Harris' campaign has not said how much she inherited from her father. According to her financial disclosure statement filed last year, her worth before the inheritance was somewhere between $7.8 million and $37 million.

Somewhere between $5 million and $25 million of that is stock in a company owned by her husband, Anders Ebbers, according to the disclosure form. The form also indicates that in 2004 she sold between $5 million and $25 million in stock from the company founded by her grandfather, citrus and cattle baron Ben Hill Griffin Jr.

Harris' announcement is probably better news for Democrats than Republicans, Darryl Paulson, a University of South Florida political science professor, said Thursday.

``Her image is so chiseled in stone in such a negative way that even though she's pumping in $10 million of her own money, much of that is going to have to be used to create a positive image of her and $10 million isn't going to be enough,'' said Paulson, a Republican.