SourceNovak says Rep. Harris may quit race; she deniesBy JEREMY WALLACENational commentator Robert Novak predicted over the weekend that the end is near for Katherine Harris' run for the U.S. Senate.
Novak's column had the congresswoman declaring Monday that there's no way she'll give up on her Senate hopes.
"I am in this campaign until Election Day next November," Harris said. "Any rumors or speculation to the contrary are completely false."
Novak's Sunday column was a significant reversal, given his early support for the Longboat Key Republican's Senate campaign.
The man who vehemently defended Harris on national television wrote Sunday: "Republican insiders believe Rep. Katherine Harris, with her fund-raising in the dumps and her staff constantly in flux, may drop out of the U.S. Senate race in Florida against first-term Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson."
Novak's words have been repeated on dozens of political blogs and Web sites as proof that Harris is about to drop out.
While others have speculated that Harris might drop out, none have had the conservative credentials of Novak, who in August stormed off the set of a television talk show after trying to defend Harris' chances of winning in 2006.
"Don't be too sure she's going to lose ... all the establishment's against her and I've seen these Republican anti-establishment candidates who do pretty well," Novak told Democratic campaign consultant James Carville during the Aug. 4 show. Novak left the set after Carville interrupted him.
According to Novak's Sunday column, Harris may be going into 2006 with less than $1 million in her campaign war chest, while Nelson already has more than $7 million for his campaign.
Novak said it looks like Harris may raise $500,000 for her campaign in this reporting period, which runs from October to December. In the previous three months, Harris raised less than $500,000.
Political experts say she needs money to make television commercials and send campaign mailings that can help remake her image and go after Nelson. Most public political polls show Harris badly trailing Nelson.
"If she doesn't have a million-plus, how is she going to run a statewide campaign?" asked Republican political consultant David Johnson.
If Novak is correct and Harris ends up raising only $500,000 in this period, Republicans are likely to find someone to challenge her for the party's nomination, Johnson said.
If she can't raise more money and still refuses to get out of the race, Johnson said, she's either in denial or knows something no one else in politics knows.
Harris insists that her fund raising is taking off. She's coming off a binge of fund-raising events with the likes of former U.N. ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick and former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed.
During campaign stops, she repeatedly tells political watchers not to believe the pundits' talk about how she's doing. She pointed to a new finance team as proof that she's going in the right direction.
"We have organized a large finance and grass-roots network around the state and we are meeting or exceeding our goals in those arenas," Harris said. "The recent changes in staff have significantly strengthened our campaign and the momentum is building as never before."
If Harris does get out, Novak singled out U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fort Pierce, as a candidate to run against Nelson. Foley already has more than $2 million in his campaign coffers.
Johnson said polling done by his company, Strategic Vision, shows Foley would do the best among a half-dozen other Republicans who are most often mentioned as candidates to run for the Senate.
Foley has said repeatedly that he has not ruled out running, but he also isn't likely to take on Harris one-on-one in a primary battle. Harris still brings strong name recognition among hard-core Republican voters, a problem for Foley, who has a more moderate voting record.
