Some ask: Can Katherine Harris' campaign survive?

Jim Stratton
The Orlando Sentinel (MCT)

Katherine Harris faces surgery next week, lost a raft of key staffers this week and in some polls continues to trail Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson by as many as 30 points.

All of which begs the question: Can the Longboat Key Republican congresswoman continue in a Senate race that has offered her virtually nothing but turmoil for months?

Harris' remaining staff members were not immediately available for comment Thursday, but her office did issue a news release saying the campaign was "aggressively moving forward."

Meanwhile, Harris' outgoing campaign manager said the candidate has given no indication she will leave the race.

"None whatsoever," said Glenn Hodas, whose resignation becomes effective today. But Hodas said the future of the campaign may be determined by what doctors find when they perform surgery on Harris on Monday.

Last week, Harris announced she would have an ovarian mass removed. After the surgery, a biopsy will be performed to determine if the growth is malignant or benign.

"She really needs to see what the prognosis is and make the determination after that," Hodas said.

The Republican Party of Florida has not suggested publicly that Harris leave the race. But it has offered virtually no significant support for the candidate.

Party spokesman Jeff Sadosky said Thursday the party was "going to wait until September and hope we have a candidate."

He said Harris "has obviously had some issues and they keep cropping back up." The high staff turnover, he said, "definitely affects her ability to gain any traction or momentum."

This week, Harris suffered the second mass defection of staff after losing campaign manager Hodas, communications director Chris Ingram, a grass-roots organizer and four other mid-level employees. In all, Hodas said, seven people were abandoning the campaign.

Harris' news release Thursday put the number at six and said three new people already had been hired. Senior-level staffers, it said, would be named soon.

The campaign workers who left this week lasted only three-and-a-half months. They came aboard in April after another group of top advisers resigned en masse.

Hodas said he left the campaign because he didn't think he could give Harris what she needs.

"It needs a new management team that can see its way to victory against Bill Nelson," he said. "I've lost my enthusiasm for that."

Former staffers complained that Harris is difficult to work for - a micro-manager who sometimes berates her aides for minor lapses such as not having enough signs at campaign stops or for bringing her the wrong coffee. They say she often rejects the advice of her senior staff, surprising them with statements they must later scramble to explain.

Hodas would say only that working for Harris was "very challenging" and, at times, frustrating.

Harris must now try to reassemble a staff with just six weeks to go before the Republican primary. That may be difficult for two reasons: Most veteran political operatives already are working for someone else, and her campaign appears to be stuck under a growing cloud.

Former campaign manager Jamie Miller said Harris will be especially hard-pressed to find anyone from Florida willing to take the job.

"It's a nuclear wasteland in there," said Miller. "Anyone who goes in is going to be tainted."

Miller and other top staff members tried to persuade Harris to leave the race early this year. It was just after her father's death, Harris was going nowhere in the polls and she was being battered by questions about her association with a defense contractor who had pleaded guilty to bribing another member of Congress.

Miller said Harris initially agreed to pull out of the race but changed her mind soon after. Miller later decided to leave the campaign.

"I just saw her heading for political destruction," he said. "And I didn't want to be the one to lead her to Little Big Horn."

Miller said he remains convinced that Harris should seriously consider leaving the race.

"I'm concerned for her health right now," he said. "I don't think the campaign is in her best interest."

University of South Florida political analyst Susan MacManus said Harris may still have time to assemble a staff. But, beyond that, she must find a way to keep one.

Endless news stories about staff defections, she said, have overshadowed any message Harris is trying to deliver to voters.

"When the staff is the story and not the candidate, you're in serious trouble," she said. Harris could turn things around, she said, "but the sun is going down pretty quickly."

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