 Katherine Harris Katherine Harris (born April 5 1957), American politician, has been a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives since 2003, representing the 13th District of Florida. She was born in Key West, Florida to a wealthy and politically influential family, was educated at the University of Madrid in Spain, Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia and at Harvard University, and was a real estate broker, a member of the Florida State Senate from 1995-1998 and Florida Secretary of State (1999-2002) before entering the House. Her election to the Florida legislator was one of the most expensive Florida state races in history.
While she was Secretary of State, Harris presided over the contested Presidential election of 2000 in Florida. It was Harris who certified that the Republican candidate, George W. Bush, had carried the State of Florida, thus giving him the election over Al Gore. Her ruling was challenged, and was overturned on appeal by the Florida Supreme Court, but was upheld upon further appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States. There were allegations of a conflict of interest since she was prominent in the Florida Bush campaign.
Harris has been accused of acting in a partisan manner in conducting the Florida election count. No charges have ever been filed. In addition to her opposition to recounts in predominantly democractic counties, evidence supporting her partisanship includes the following:
- Before the election, Harris spent $4 million of taxpayer funds to hire a firm with ties to purge voters who were allegedly felons. The list of "felons" included 8,000 American citizens - mostly minorities - who committed only misdemeanors and thousands of innocent people with merely the same names as felons.
- Harris unlawfully certified the election results from 20 of Florida's 67 counties without requiring - as mandated under Florida law for elections decided by one half of one percent or less - that they conduct automatic machine recounts.
- Harris unlawfully accepted and certified the results of hand recounts in six Florida counties that produced an additional 400 votes for George W. Bush while rejecting the results of hand recounts in other counties.
Her book, Center of the Storm, gives her version of events.
The 2000 election controversy was not the first time Ms. Harris faced charges of misconduct. As Secretary of State, she was criticized for lavish spending on overseas travel.[1] (http://www.ichetucknee.org/harris.html) Ms. Harris was the representative of Bill Griffin, CEO of Riscorp-and was accused of supporting preferential legislation for that company. [2] (http://www.sptimes.com/State/82598/Harris_backed_bill_ai.html) Ms. Harris was also involved in introducing Mr. Griffin to the members of the Florida state legislature-and was herself recipient of over $20,000 in donations from Riscorp key employees. Mr. Griffin plead guilty of felony counts involving illegal campaign donations and "conspiracy"- a possible plea bargain to avoid the more serious charge of insurance fraud, and served prison time (something extremely rare for the CEO of a company of that size). The Riscorp scandal involved dozens of Florida state legislators and was among the largest scandals in recent Florida history-and Ms. Harris was the most prominently involved elected official.
A brand-new Congressional district was chosen for Harris in 2002-something highly remarkable given the various controversies surrounding her behavior. Local papers of all partisan stripes refused to endorse her, and she surprised many by beating an unknown and cash-strapped Democrat with only 55% of the vote. Harris defeated the same opponent in 2004 with the same margin. Harris was very compelled by the idea of running for Bob Graham's open Senate seat; Republican officials were reportedly terrified about the bad memories such a race would revive with President Bush on the ticket as he had been 4 years earlier. In the end, Harris was persuaded to sit the race out; some believe she will run against Sen. Bill Nelson in 2006.
In a 2004 speech in Venice, Florida, she claimed that a "Middle Eastern" man was arrested for attempting to blow up the power grid in Carmel, Indiana; in fact, there is no record that such an arrest was made.
Harris was immortalized by comedienne Ana Gasteyer during the 2000-2001 season of Saturday Night Live. Harris was depicted as man-hungry, nakedly ambitious, and as wearing wardrobe and makeup that would put most drag queens to shame. [3] (http://snl.jt.org/imp.php?i=1154) By the time of her Congressional campaign, Harris' look was softer and more subdued, leading some to believe she had plastic surgery. Harris has never spoken publicly about her plastic surgery.
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