Harris Update: Blame the Long-Gone Staffers EditionIt’s 1 o’clock; do you know where your Katherine Harris update is?
Right here. One of Harris’ primary opponents is blasting Harris for a campaign mailer sent out in June, the Orlando Sentinel reports. Titled “Campaign 2006: Fact and Fiction,” the mailer is an upbeat take on Harris’ chances in November.
To bolster that case, the mailer cites the endorsements of Jeb Bush and Florida Republican Party Chairwoman Carole Jean Jordan. And it cites a poll showing Harris trailing Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) by a mere 3.9 percentage points.
Except, well, none of that is true. Bush and Jordan haven’t endorsed Harris - quite the opposite. Jordan has asked Harris to drop out of the race. And that poll is more than ten months old. Harris trails Nelson by approximately thirty points.
Harris responds, her head held high:
“It has been brought to our attention that a letter was drafted and distributed by former campaign staff members, without the Congresswoman’s knowledge or approval, making false claims regarding endorsements. This type of negligent behavior is a primary example of why Congresswoman Harris has been forced to let many of her former staff members go; their lack of professionalism and integrity continues to haunt her to this day….”
Hmm. There was a mass departure of staffers in July (it wasn’t the first), but we’ve never heard of Harris firing any of them. So it seems that not only has she blamed the problem on the staffers who fled the sinking ship of her campaign, but it sounds like she’s trying to spin their departure as some sort of housecleaning, as if her campaign weren’t desperate for aides. Maybe she fired them after they quit?