Rep. Katherine Harris has done a political about-face on using her extensive inheritance to fund her own political campaign — yet another seeming sign that her campaign is in trouble:
In an effort to jump-start her sputtering Senate campaign, Rep. Katherine Harris went on national television invoking the memory of her late father and saying the money he left her will form the financial foundation of her challenge to Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson.
Now the Harris campaign says that’s not the case.
Campaign spokeswoman Morgan Dobbs said Thursday that Harris will sell her existing assets rather than rely on money from her father, a bank executive who died in January.
“It is my understanding from her statements that she does not plan to use inherited money on the campaign — rather, money from liquidating her personal assets, which she says total $10 million,” Dobbs wrote in an e-mail to the Orlando Sentinel.
“I think I am being pretty clear.”
So it was all a creation of an inaccurate, politically biased news media, right? Weeellllllll:
However, Dobbs’ explanation is at odds with the message Harris has been delivering for more than a week.
The Republican from Longboat Key appeared on national television saying she would use the money left to her by her father to infuse her campaign with a badly needed shot of financing.
The announcement was the centerpiece of her appearance on Fox News, where Harris reaffirmed her commitment to the race.
“I’m going to take his legacy that he gave to me, everything I have, and I’m going to put it in this race,” she told Sean Hannity. “I’m going to commit my legacy from my father — $10 million.”
A moment later, Hannity asked, “This is money from your father?”
“Yes,” replied Harris.
Since then, Harris, who is scheduled to campaign in Central Florida today, has answered few questions about the details of her plan.
The bottom line is that the Harris campaign is a shambles. Polls show her behind in the polls. Her name became mired in a scandal involving a disgraced contractor. State Republican leaders have been almost praying for her to drop out. The Bush White House is lukewarm to her run.
So there is no enormous groundswell from within the bowels of Florida clamoring for Harris to be in the Senate: she’s making the race because she wants to and because she can.
And this Orlando Sentinel piece quotes experts as saying her on-again-off-again statements of how she’ll fund the campaign won’t do her Senatorial aspirations much good: it is, to be honest, lousy political imagery:
On Friday, a day after being asked about the apparent discrepancy between what Harris said last week and what Dobbs said Thursday, Dobbs sent an e-mail to the Sentinel saying she would provide no additional information.
“I do not have an official comment from the campaign on this issue,” she wrote.
The mixed messages left campaign observers puzzled.
“She pledged all her inheritance from her dad,” said Susan MacManus, a political analyst at the University of South Florida. “Obviously, that’s where people think it’s coming from.
“To say something different now just confuses matters. And the last thing her campaign needs right now is to confuse people.”
The paper also cites two other pitfalls: her new position that she won’t use her inheritance may scare some donors away and it will be a huge contrast to her original implication that she’s going to put everything on the line for her constituents.
The bottom line: it’s hard to see how this story that negates her widely-publicized vow to use her inheritance in her campaign will gain her any new votes. It can only lead to a loss in support at worst, stagnation in the polls at best. Throw your souvenir Kathrine Harris makeup kits away.
UPDATE: Harris’ campaign is now in “free-fall.”
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.