Katherine Harris Confusion

August 1, 2002 9:36 PM

Katherine Harris has missed two election deadlines in the last month, failing to resign in time to run for Congress and miscalculating the filing fees required for 100 office-seekers. Guess who has a new appreciation for bending election law?
posted by rcade (27 comments total)

More fun: Dates to Remember, a booklet credited to Harris that includes the "resign-to-run" deadline.
posted by rcade at 9:48 PM on August 1, 2002

I would not complain about this human mistake (which I'm sure it is), except that I'm sure if the non-ruling party did the same thing, they'd receive a "tough luck" and the boot... But then again, politicians are corrupt, this is not news.
posted by statusquo at 9:57 PM on August 1, 2002

The New York Times has more details in its own story on Harris' blunder. The Democrats are looking into whether Harris did any Secretary of State work during the two weeks after her back-dated resignation, but it's impossible. She hasn't done any work in the post for her entire tenure.
posted by rcade at 10:20 PM on August 1, 2002

She doesn't have to, she's connected.

Especially now.Don't make her call James Baker in to, uh, move some people.
posted by BarneyFifesBullet at 12:25 AM on August 2, 2002

So basically the fact that she resigned after the fact means that when she called the Gov and requested that the deadline for qualifying ballots be extended another day to allow any souls to prove that their ballot was on the FedEx plane that went down, she was asking NOT as the Secretary of State of Florida, but as the single person who had the most influence on Gov's brother becoming No.2 in the nation (behind uncle Dick).

Nice. Real nice. I'm quite sure that the Gov would've declared a 'state of emergency' (mind you, the three crewmembers onboard the plane walked away from the crash) and changed the rules like that in any election.

Another piece in a mosaic of scary things to happen in Florida...
posted by Busithoth at 1:11 AM on August 2, 2002

How can someone who isn't competent enough to understand the law supposed to be a good representative? She shouldn't be able to retroactively resign.
posted by revbrian at 6:22 AM on August 2, 2002

Without an equal and active enforcement of law, there can be no justice, and a society which blinks at favoritism, cronyism, nepotism, etc. is certain to promote injustice.
posted by rushmc at 6:46 AM on August 2, 2002

Someone isn't reading well. The law says you have to indicate your intent to resign, or resign immediately. Not only did she resign immediately, she resigned in the PAST, which is before immediate! Cool trick, if youc an pull it off.

And, Gov Bush, after accepting her resignation, gave her the position of Acting Secretary. That means she could have resigned effective March 15th just as easily, and the resignation would have had minimal impact on her position, or work done "after" the resignation.

She was still secretary, and still gets a paycheque, but I do find it rather odd that she thought the rules didn't apply -- safe is better than sorry, and with a net change in her position of zero, it wouldn't have hurt to get the resignation in on time.
posted by dwivian at 7:34 AM on August 2, 2002

Rules?.. Didn't you know, Harris is above the rules....

Ohmygod! Between Harris, Gov Bush, and the potential for Reno this state does not have a chance. That's it... I'm moving!
posted by bmxGirl at 7:47 AM on August 2, 2002

She shouldn't be able to retroactively resign.

I imagine she'll have to give back any pay she recieved for the two weeks.

My big problem with this story is that she remains the "acting" secretary of state until a successor is appointed.

Um, NO.

When someone resigns, they resign - "retroactively" or not. Someone else steps up to take the "acting" role, just as if she had died in a plane crash or something.
posted by mikewas at 8:07 AM on August 2, 2002

Exscuse my anger, but it tweaks me that people pass judgement (so harshly) when they really didn't understand the severity of what occured. I got to hear about a lot of this as it went down. Some things could be said about doing things at the last minute, but that's another issue to tackle.

This isn't about Catherine Harris' personal agenda. Hate or like her, a good number of Florida's state level politicians were either in the air at the time or had their documents on that plane that crashed. The ones flying couldn't land due to airspace closure, and the mail was obviously up in flames.

This effected hundreds of people running for various seats, and would have had an enormous impact on our state's government if Jeb hadn't of declared that executive order. I saw how those people scrambled to put it all back together first hand. Jeb had to declare the state of emergency to be able to get the executive order. Elections said they didn't have the leverage to extend it, which they don't.

I for one have a lot of faith in my state level government. Aside from the Manatee protection debacle from last session, they have been up to lots of good. Color me satisfied.
posted by shadow45 at 8:09 AM on August 2, 2002

Color me satisfied.
You don't want to be colored anything but white in Florida. Really.

Banana Republican double standards alert! Call in James Baker III. Raise millions from the corporations. Emergency! Emergency!
posted by nofundy at 8:16 AM on August 2, 2002

I don't think anyone is saying this is about Catherine Harris' personal agenda.

I thought the point was that those extra checks wouldn't have been needed if Harris hand't fucked up in the first place. She's inept!
posted by bradlauster at 8:22 AM on August 2, 2002

More fun from Harris -- she nearly fell over while making her resignation announcement:

"Harris began the announcement yesterday by reading a resignation letter she wrote to the governor, at one point nearly falling after she stumbled off a ream of paper she used as a pedestal. Then, after answering only two quick queries from reporters, Harris was whisked away by her staff and refused to answer any more questions."

posted by rcade at 8:58 AM on August 2, 2002

Did Harris make the mistake in the amount, or was it her office? Could this clerical error been, as the name implies, the fault of a clerk?
posted by dwivian at 9:00 AM on August 2, 2002

Accepting filing fees late because Katherine Harris' office can't work a calculator: state of emergency.

Counting all valid votes in Florida for the most important political office in the world: sorry, we're out of time and there's nothing we can do about it.
posted by rcade at 9:00 AM on August 2, 2002

Vote Percy!
posted by mark13 at 9:10 AM on August 2, 2002

Ahh, the pleasures of selective law enforcement....!
I really hope the people of her district realize that this could only be the beginning of her bumbling.
posted by themikeb at 9:12 AM on August 2, 2002

rcade: It simply could not have been put better, so I won't try.

She's so inept she's basically guaranteed a win. If not, i'm sure Jeb can pull some strings and get the court to settle it.
posted by Ynoxas at 9:40 AM on August 2, 2002

Percy may be cool, but first, there was Ernest.
posted by themikeb at 10:26 AM on August 2, 2002

Oh, cool! So now it's kosher to do retroactive politics?

Does this mean we can revert to the 1870's-era boundaries of Indian Territories?

That would be cool. Let's bring back the buffalo while we're at it...
posted by beth at 12:30 PM on August 2, 2002

Is there EVER a good picture of the woman? Why does she always look like a ten cent whore who put on her makeup in a dark closet?
posted by aacheson at 3:48 PM on August 2, 2002

yeah, aacheson--
jeb's closet!
posted by amberglow at 4:12 PM on August 2, 2002

Why does she always look like a ten cent whore who put on her makeup in a dark closet?

Some questions answer themselves, really. Let's face it...that creature has been ridden hard and put up wet for too many years for it not to show...
posted by dejah420 at 6:22 PM on August 2, 2002

"Harris began the announcement yesterday by reading a resignation letter she wrote to the governor, at one point nearly falling after she stumbled off a ream of paper she used as a pedestal. Then, after answering only two quick queries from reporters, Harris was whisked away by her staff and refused to answer any more questions."

Was she drunk?

Those pictures don't do anything to disprove that theory.
posted by nath at 7:39 PM on August 2, 2002

I call her Katherine Embarass. Has a nice ring to it.
posted by piskycritter at 6:55 PM on August 3, 2002

At least one of her Democrat opponents is making the most of the fact that her constituency is going to be seen in terms of personality over party: 'Anybody But Katherine' is a bloody good slogan.
posted by riviera at 12:47 PM on August 4, 2002