Katherine Harris gets challenged

[durrrty libby]

"I was on I-10 heading to Tallahassee when I got a call that William McBride and Peter Monroe had both filed today to run against Katherine," Ross said. "I just turned around and headed back home. My wife is not happy with me; she wanted me to go for it."

McBride (no relation to Bill McBride, former Democratic candidate for governor) is a lawyer and businessman from the Orlando area; Monroe is a developer from Safety Harbor.

Later, just before qualifying ended, LeRoy Collins Jr. of Tampa, son of the late Democratic Gov. LeRoy Collins, also qualified for the Republican primary for U.S. Senate.
In addition to Harris, McBride, Monroe and Collins, Belinda Noah of Tampa also entered the GOP primary

Ross said with that many people in the race, Harris likely could win with her 30-35 percent core support of the Republican Party. Ross said he wanted to avoid that.”



http://www.lakelandledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060513/NEWS/605130372/1039

[Poppyseedman]

1. I know the conventional wisdom is Harris does not have a chance

and she still is a long shot at best, but this news just made the race against Nelson closer.

There is no bad "publicity" for a politician.

This gives her campaign an air of legitimacy and news coverage other than how much a loser she is.

[0007]

2. Keep Katherine going. I don't want her to die right yet.

[durrrty libby]

3. It still seems all good for her

By the time the deadline rolled around, she had 3 challengers.

With that many, she should stay in it.

Go Kat...waste your dough....then blow.

[Divernan]

4. No, the other GOP candidates will be trashing her big time.

In that McBride is a "family friend of presidential adviser Karl Rove," we can count on McBride to run a nasty, dirty race against Harris. Rove is notorious for using the last minute big lie to backstab opponents when they don't have time left before the election to get the truth out. I think the GOP primary with that many people running will end up a circular firing squad.

"Ross said with that many people in the race, Harris likely could win with her 30-35 percent core support of the Republican Party. Ross said he wanted to avoid that.

But now he does not hold out much hope for success of either of the two newcomers to defeat incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson in the fall. "None has run for office before," Ross said. "This race may very well be written off on a national basis."

Ross said that throughout Thursday, he had received encouragement to run for the Senate.He noted that even state party chairwoman Carole Jean Jordan had suggested it; but it was the entry of McBride, a family friend of presidential adviser Karl Rove, that changed his mind in the middle of the interstate, he said."

[PATRICK]

5. Think Katherine

while you still have the semblance of a brain. Even a crazed delusionist can get an inkling when you allies and friends are against you.

I think now the strategy has shifted. No one can beat Nelson honestly and harris is ruining the chance of anyone getting respectably close for the "edge" to come into play. But they apparently cannot come out and dump Harris for a better candidate. That would infuriate her with clear evidence that they did not use the "edge" for her. She does know too much and she is very determined and angry.

So it will be sidelong things. A real smart move(if this IS a move at all) would be to ruin her in heated primary she will triumphantly win. She may even pump up her core a few points enough to miss the fact that Bush team has successfully alienated everyone else against her. She runs and goes down, even perhaps with a token exercise of vote priming etc. Gee, Katherine we told you it was too much and we gave you some extra votes. What more could we do?

Will she fall for it? In the psychology of noble defeat and the crocodile comforters getting close to her while they rifle through her handbag and apartment she will not be emotionally directed to the madness of pure revenge. She will get a lot of consoling offers and goodies. Jeb will give her a hug and Shrub will call her with his sympathy. She will be watched like a hawk. And her opportunity for spiteful redemption will pass.

Then later, it might be whether they tire of these mammoth efforts to control her(they need things very simple) and flip a coin between suicide or accident.

And I don't think she has enough of a clue to suspect how the subtleties of those AFRAID of her are betraying and playing her with extreme care.

Someone should get a non-NSA line to her.