Posted on 09/05/2006 6:10:39 PM PDT by dukeman
TAMPA, Fla. - Katherine Harris, trying to overcome months of campaign troubles and fight off three relatively unknown challengers, jumped out to an early lead Tuesday in the race for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination.
With 21 percent of precincts reporting, Harris had nearly 50 percent of the votes, compared with 31 percent for Windermere lawyer Will McBride, 14 percent for retired Navy admiral LeRoy Collins and nearly 6 percent for Pinellas County developer Peter Monroe.
In a poll last week, the 49-year-old Longboat Key congresswoman held a double-digit lead on her three challengers, who were hoping to marshal enough of the anti-Harris vote in the GOP to upset her. Harris has a strong base of Republicans who still love her because of her role in the 2000 presidential election.
On the campaign trial, Harris treated the Republican primary like a minor bump in the road on her way to running against Bill Nelson in November, when she is expected to face a more formidable challenge.
Polls have shown that she will have trouble beating the Democratic incumbent senator, whom she attacks as a liberal who tries to raise taxes, coddles illegal immigrants and undermines President Bush's policies. She's promising to work to shore up the nation's troubled immigration policy, cut taxes and preserve "traditional marriages."
Harris, accompanied by husband Anders Ebbeson, showed up at Longboat Key town hall to vote at about 9:30 a.m., after starting the day waving campaign signs with supporters on a Sarasota street corner.
"I'm feeling great," she said before going inside to cast her ballot. She said she thinks the adversity she's faced this campaign season has unified her base of supporters.
"I think everything has worked together for good," she said. "I think after this (election), you'll see a great strength and unity as (the Republican Party) committed to do, and we'll move forward. ... We're just focused on Nov. 7."
A former Florida state senator and elected secretary of state, Harris became a rising star in the Republican Party after her role in certifying the state's votes in the disputed 2000 presidential election for President Bush, parlaying the name recognition into two terms in the U.S. House.
It's not the first hurdle that I am cancerned about....
Someone please post the picture of a very perky Harris riding the horse.
Just google Katherine Harris and click on images.
You'll see both of em.
Her and the horse ;-p
Looks like we are going to have Nelson around for another 6 years.
Well, at we have the D-cup Republicans to blame.
I remember watching the central Florida local talking heads on TV recently calling her the "dark horse" candidate. They never gave her chance.
Should read:
Both of them AND her and the horse!
Stranger things have happened than Harris defeating Nelson. She may just pull it out.
Loser, loser! I'm glad our Miami Heat was not listening to you!!From you pal's in the "drive-by" L.S.M. they constantly were similarly predicted NOT to be good enough to win the NBA championship!!! Had they listened to you loser guys the Heat should just stayed home instead of fighting their ways to the big W. Would you vote for the "as-naut" cadet b.n. if you could???
The Florida Marlins are a better analogy.
coddles illegal immigrants and undermines President Bush's policies
How can someone do this simultaneously?
Wonder if she'd loan my wife her waistline for a few weeks.
Perhaps my beloved would get used to it and want one of her
own....
So, your beloved is not a freeper, eh? :-)
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