Posted on 08/07/2006 11:02:29 AM PDT by AntiGuv
WASHINGTON — Standing outside a Starbucks in Sarasota, U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris was berating a campaign aide as customers at outdoor tables sat watching.
Two days earlier, she had left some books in the aide's car as he drove her to campaign events in Florida. That night, when she returned to Washington, she called the aide and told him to send the books to her right away. He sent them the next morning by FedEx, but Harris returned to Sarasota that day before the books arrived.
"She kept saying 'I need those books. Why didn't you get them to me?' She wouldn't let it die," said the aide, one of more than a dozen key staffers who have quit Harris' campaign for the U.S. Senate this year.
Working for Katherine Harris was like working for Meryl Streep's super-demanding, hypercritical boss-from-hell character in the movie The Devil Wears Prada, said another former campaign aide.
Harris is a two-term congresswoman from Longboat Key who captured the nation's attention for her role in the 2000 presidential election recount while she was Florida's Secretary of State. Adding to that allure is her family's prominence within Florida — she is the granddaughter of cattle and real estate magnate Ben Hill Griffin Jr. and daughter of George W. Harris Jr., who was chief executive officer and chairman of the board of Citrus and Chemical Bank in Polk County.
But in the past year, she has suffered tribulations, personal and political. Her father died in January, and she had surgery to remove a mass from her ovary last month. Her campaign for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson has been troubled by a lack of support from the national and state party, by reports of her meetings with a lobbyist who gave her and other representatives illegal contributions and by the seemingly endless exodus of staffers from her campaign.
In interviews with The Palm Beach Post during the past three weeks, six of those former aides, three of whom did not want to be identified, have described Harris as a temperamental boss who routinely yelled at staffers, belittled their intelligence, criticized their efforts, micromanaged every aspect of her campaign, and was ungrateful to those working for her.
"We used to call her 'The Hurricane' because she would spin completely out of control over the smallest things," said Jim Dornan, Harris' first campaign manager, who quit last fall.
Harris said it "makes me feel badly if they think that I'm critical of staff because I do compliment them when they do well."
"I don't mind if people make a mistake the first time, even the second time, but these are kind of simple protocols. I think that they're the kind of things that people are hired to do. They just need to be consistent," she said in an interview with The Post.
"The most important thing is they have integrity. I really thought we could run this race with integrity. I know campaigns tend to be nasty business, but I tried to get away from all of that. I hired preachers' kids and young people that I thought would sort of have a level of integrity."
Harris attributed many of her staff problems to differences over political philosophy. Claiming she does not hire most of her staff below the managerial level, Harris said she sometimes discovers that staffers have a different outlook on issues from hers.
"I'll try to do something and they'll really try to head me in a different direction or try to undermine those efforts, and that I can't accept," she said. "I think, sometimes, that's where the frustrations come in."
Ex-aides cite personality
But the former aides said their differences with her were over personality, not politics. Several said they continued working for her, despite the way she treated them, because they believed in her mission.
"I have never in my life worked for somebody like her — ever — and hopefully I'll never have to again," Dornan said.
Jamie Miller, Harris' second campaign manager, who quit in April, said, "It's almost like she won't allow herself to be successful with someone else helping her.
"Any time it's not about her, she makes it about her."
Glenn Hodas, her third campaign manager, who quit in mid-July, said Harris failed to kept her promises "not to have tantrums, not to berate staff, not to micromanage and nitpick, and not to get flustered on inconsequential details."
Harris' campaign isn't the only place where her top aides have quit. Her congressional office also has seen more than a dozen key staffers leave since she took office in 2003, including four chiefs of staff and four press secretaries.
In July, congressional speechwriter Jennifer Hickey informed her friends she was quitting in an e-mail that said: "Value of Handing in my Resignation Letter: Priceless."
Harris didn't only berate her campaign managers, "she was an equal opportunity abuser," Dornan said.
She chastised speechwriters, press secretaries, fund-raisers, even travel aides who drove her from one event to another.
For those travel aides, a top priority was to get her Starbucks coffee, no matter where she was campaigning, "and God help him if it wasn't hot," an aide said
Several aides said Harris was so obsessed with Starbucks coffee she insisted that Starbucks locations be mapped out when she was traveling from one campaign stop to another.
One aide recalled going to Harris' house for a day of fund-raising calls without bringing her a cup of Starbucks. The aide said Harris made it clear that it was expected he bring her a coffee when coming to her house.
Another time, the aide said, he went to dinner with other staffers after a full day of campaigning while Harris was attending a church conference in Fort Lauderdale. By the time he returned, Harris had called the campaign manager to find out where the aide was so he could bring her something to drink. The aide said he was incredulous because there was a water fountain nearby.
"She literally yelled at me in the hallway," the aide said. "She said, 'Never, ever do that again.' I just walked away."
The aides said Harris constantly yelled on the telephone to her top staffers. Once, she threw a stack of paper at Miller when he criticized her.
When aides were quoted in news articles, Harris would invariably find something to criticize about what they had said, according to several former staffers.
A graduate of Agnes Scott College with a master's degree from Harvard University, Harris sometimes would call staffers "stupid" and complain she didn't have enough Ivy League graduates working for her, a former aide said.
"She always had a way of making (staff) people feel that they were beneath her," the aide said.
"There was a great deal of fear and loathing," among the staff, Dornan said. "I dreaded having to talk to her on a daily basis. Nine times out of 10, she was berating me for the most minute things."
Several of Harris' top advisers — including Ed Goeas, Ed Rollins, Adam Goodman and Fred Asbell — met at least three times with Harris — in Tampa, Sarasota and Washington — in what Dornan called "come to Jesus" meetings to confront her treatment of staff.
Harris would initially deny there was a problem but finally acknowledge it and promise to change, but soon afterward would repeat the same types of behavior, Dornan said.
"No matter how we tried to address it, it never seemed to do any good," he said. "We did attempt to deal with the problem head-on."
'Why, why, why?'
Former aides said Harris is nice to new employees, but the "honeymoon" period lasts only a week or two. Then she is biting in her criticisms and dismissive of her aides' input.
"The day Katherine hired me, I thought she was the sweetest human being I'd ever met," Dornan said. "When Katherine was in a good mood and things seemed to be going well.... She was as nice as she could be, but it was just a side you didn't see very often."
Although Harris sometimes treated staff members for a lunch or dinner, Miller recalled a scene he said still makes him angry.
It was Jan. 21 and Harris had just held her grass-roots kickoff rally at Walt Disney World's Swan Hotel. About 200 supporters, including two dozen state legislators and Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings, participated. Miller called it the "high-water mark" of the campaign. But he said it was spoiled by two low notes.
The first occurred as Rollins — Harris' then-senior consultant and a former political adviser to President Reagan — left the stage after predicting Harris would win despite polls showing her far behind.
"Why, why, why?" Harris demanded, had Rollins said she was trailing in the polls? Rollins called Miller that evening, bewildered and angry at her attack.
The second low note occurred that night when Miller took about 15 staffers to a local restaurant to celebrate the rally. During the dinner, Harris called him. When he told her about the dinner, she angrily informed him that her campaign would not pay for the dinner, estimated at about $400.
Miller said he told Harris he would pay for the meal out of his own money because he thought it was important to show appreciation to the mostly young staffers for their long hours and hard work on the event. At that point, Harris insisted on being put on a speaker and told the staffers she was paying for the dinner.
"It was inconceivable that after such a successful event she wouldn't want her staff rewarded so there would be positive reinforcement," Miller said, noting that when Harris spoke to the staff, "she went from berating me to glowing on the staff."
But he said the staff could tell he was upset by his conversation with Harris.
"It was those type of blows that were really the body blows," Miller said. "They took a toll out of you."
Dornan recalled another incident when Harris arrived at a major rally after most of the guests instead of being there to greet them as they arrived.
"She went ballistic," he said. "She told me I'd ruined her life," and screamed and cried in frustration. "It was a performance that will go down in history."
Harris micromanaged every aspect of the campaign, campaign managers and staffers said. Dornan recalled that after he'd shown Harris the campaign's headquarters, she gave him a diagram the next day showing where every staff person's desk should be located.
"I was just flabbergasted that a candidate of this magnitude was digging this deep into the minutia of the campaign," Dornan said.
Harris would spend hours rewriting news releases about minor subjects such as the appointment of a low-level staff member, rather than concentrating on what he called her most important task: soliciting campaign contributions from potential donors.
And her fund-raising has been far less successful than Democrat Nelson's.
Harris also routinely belittled the efforts of her press aides and speech writers, saying their writing was "the worst she had ever seen," and spending hours rewriting their work, one aide said.
Once, her staff took a speech Harris had rewritten, saved it for about two months, and then gave it back to her as a proposed speech. Harris called it "terrible."
When the staff informed her she had written it, she said, "I guess I had a bad day."
Appearance-obsessed
Aides also painted a picture of Harris as someone who was obsessive about her appearance.
Harris, 49, frequently wore tight-fitting outfits, low-cut tops or short skirts that several aides said they considered inappropriate for a middle-aged Senate candidate.
At least one aide went shopping with Harris to help her find more suitable clothing, but there was little change in her apparel.
Even when the press noted her sexy outfits, such as when she wore a form-fitting hot pink shirt while riding a horse at the Arcadia rodeo, Harris found it amusing, the aides said.
"She would rather have that publicity than be ignored," Miller said.
Harris scoffed at the suggestion she was obsessed with her appearance.
"Now that's funny considering that I get ready in 15 minutes and am at the office. I'm hardly obsessed with (my) appearance."
Harris, whose heavy makeup was often the butt of jokes during the 2000 election recount, "would talk about makeup... in a weird, creepy, obsessive way," said a former aide.
And she would frequently tell her female staff, "I'd much rather be pretty than wealthy," the aide said.
Harris, who never had children — she has an adult stepdaughter — also would tell her female aides she regretted not having children.
"Freeze your eggs," because you'll eventually want to have children, she told one of her aides.
Her money, her way
Several aides said Harris' behavior became even more erratic after the death of her father in January and her surprise announcement in March that she would put $10 million of her own money into her Senate campaign.
That was also about the time Harris' name became linked with Mitchell Wade, the former head of MZM Inc., a defense contractor who pleaded guilty to bribing former California Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham. Wade admitted giving $32,000 in illegal contributions to Harris' 2004 congressional campaign and promising to raise money for her Senate campaign.
Harris has acknowledged she unsuccessfully sought a $10 million appropriation requested by Wade to establish a naval counterintelligence facility in her congressional district. She also admitted that Wade took her to dinner two times at an expensive Washington restaurant. Harris later contributed money to some Florida charities to cover the illegal contributions and the cost of her meals.
The three events came within about six weeks of each other.
"That's when she started to mess up the momentum with her staff and consultants," Miller said. "She just decided it was her money and she was going to do it her own way."
As Harris' staff became more and more alienated from her, aides said she began trusting them less and was openly critical of them.
When a half-dozen quit in early April, Harris posted a security guard outside her headquarters to prevent them from removing any of their belongings and changed the locks on the doors.
One aide who quit during that period said he did not notice any of the staff slacking off, even in the final days.
"Everyone was still working hard for her when we all left," the aide said.
Yes, she does.
You mean, the MSM made up the quotes from her former chiefs of staff? Dornan really didn't say those things? Is that what you are saying?
So you're claiming that the media made up these very specific and detailed allegations, some of which appear to have been sourced to multiple staffers?
Does the liberal media lie...Your asking that question????Please can't you figure that out for yourself....
The proper question is whether the media is lying in this case. Given the fact that many of the quotes are attributed - and the staffer/aide has not refuted them - I'm guessing the media is reporting accurately here.
It certainly does. She appears to be an ego-driven micromanager who goes out of her way to alienate those who work for her.
Something smells here. Palm Beach post is not a trustable source.
People all over are trying to kill her campaign. I wish I knew why...
Nah, if it was Hillary, everyone here would automatically believe it - even if it was in The Star. Since it is KH, blaming the media is the response.
What I shold have said there is several here who have volunteered for her campaign and know her...They do not work for her per sey...
Katherine Harris will be treated like a queen next year by the liberal MSM, when she becomes a TV talking head who will scorn conservatives as traitors.
That comment does not even pass the smell test...She is not Hillery in any respect...What do you have against Conservatives????
I wish I knew whyDid you read the article? It's all about why.
No, I live in Virginia. Unfortunately I have to live with the consequences of this disastrous campaign just as much as any Florida resident.
Do you know her and her record or do you just repeat the liberal media as the gospel
Again, I'm repeating what numerous Harris staffers are saying. The media is little more than a red herring.
There is several individuals here that do know her and have worked for her...They sure do not tell the stories that are appearing now..
Maybe they should get to know her a little better:
"The day Katherine hired me, I thought she was the sweetest human being I'd ever met," Dornan said. "When Katherine was in a good mood and things seemed to be going well.... She was as nice as she could be, but it was just a side you didn't see very often."
Perhaps. But.........
.........I'd still hit it.
"It's just that they never f***ing do anything f***ing well," she added, muttering.
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