THE HERALD TRIBUNE

THE HERALD TRIBUNE

Harris In The Clear?
Although public polls continue to show her as a clear underdog versus Sen. Bill Nelson and her fund-raising has been below par, Katherine Harris may still find herself without a Republican challenger as she seeks her party nomination for the 2006 Senate race.The National Republican Senatorial Committee isn't coming out strong behind her yet, but this week a spokesman for the group told me there is no active recruitment effort going on right now, despite a political buzz that says there is another push to get Florida House Speaker Allan Bense into the race. Last night on WEDU's Florida This Week, I was on with a group of political insiders in Tampa whom all assumed Harris would become the party's nominee. The bottom line, according to Republican watchers, is that no one is confident they can beat Harris without spending a ton of money. If they succeeded they'd be low on cash heading into a battle with Nelson, who already has about $7 million in the bank and is sure to have a lot more by the time a Republican primary battle would end in early September. The prospects of trying to beat a sitting incumbent with just about two months of campaign time after a possibly vicious and expensive primary doesn't appeal to many seasoned political watchers.If Harris posts a big fund-raising total at the end of this month, she'll go a long way in further shutting down talk of a primary battle. A $2 million total would certainly do it, according to most observers. If she posts less than $1 million, Harris will find a new push to get her out of the race. The importance of the money, and the message it can send is clearly not lost on Harris. She's aggressively raising money. She's had at least a pair of fund-raising events this week, and isn't expected to slow her pace. She has another event she's lining up in Tallahassee this week coming up. Plus, she tells the Insider that both Mel Martinez and Jeb Bush are going to come on board soon. Neither has said so publicly, but Harris said both have agreed to help her raise cash.Bottom line? It's crunch time for Harris.

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Sincerely yours Rodrigo González Fernández, lawyerschile.blogspot.com   blogeningles.blogspot.com