Associated Press Harris No Stranger To Controversy By Dara Kam TALLAHASSEE, Fla (AP) -- A Harvard-educated
blueblood from one of Florida's wealthiest families,
Secretary of State Katherine Harris is no stranger to
controversy.
She's been investigated for campaign finance
violations and criticized for spending state money
jetting around the world, spending up to $500 a night
for hotel rooms in Washington. She's also been one of
George W. Bush's most prominent political supporters,
campaigning for him in Florida and elsewhere.
Harris placed herself in the middle of the
increasingly partisan struggle over Florida's 25
electoral votes Monday with her public announcement that
all 67 counties are required by law to wrap up their
recounts by 5 p.m. Tuesday.
She sits as one of six elected members on the Florida
Cabinet, which with Gov. Jeb Bush, decides on issues
ranging from the mundane to the momentous affecting
schools, the environment and other statewide concerns.
As secretary of state, Harris oversees elections, the
state's historical and cultural resources and also keeps
the state's public records. She makes $106,000 a year.
''For what is probably the easiest of the Cabinet
positions, she's made it awful difficult,'' said state
Democratic Party spokesman Tony Welch.
In her first two years on the job, Harris spent
$100,000 in Florida tax dollars on foreign trade
missions to places like Barbados and Brazil as well as
the Sydney Olympics. Her travel expenses were
significantly higher than the other five Cabinet members
and three times more than Gov. Jeb Bush.
Harris defended her travel, saying she has brought
millions of dollars of international trade to the state
and established cultural ties such as a cooperative
ballet between the state and Mexico.
Sandra Mortham, the incumbent who lost to Harris in a
nasty Republican primary in 1998, said every secretary
of state emphasizes their own key areas of concern.
''For me, it was elections, and it was to get the
elections online and on the Internet,'' Mortham said.
''Katherine has decided that she wanted to move the
office more into the area of international relations.''
Ben McKay, Harris' chief of staff, said Harris was
too busy with Monday's court hearing to return calls.
In 1994, Harris became implicated in a campaign
finance scheme surrounding her first run for public
office. She was forced to reimburse $20,000 after state
investigators discovered that employees of Riscorp,
Inc., an insurer, were improperly reimbursed for their
contributions to her 1994 Senate campaign.
She said she had no knowledge that anything was amiss
with the contributions.
This year, Harris approved a taxpayer-financed public
service announcement featuring retired Gen. Norman
Schwartzkopf, a Bush ally, urging Floridians to vote.
She received criticism for spending the public's $30,000
to finance the ads, which aired during the final month
of the presidential campaign.
McKay said Harris' office asked Schwartzkopf, as a
prominent Floridian, to make the ads months ago, after
Gloria Estefan and Tiger Woods turned down the request.
Harris, 43, earned a degree in history from the
all-female Agnes Scott College in Georgia, received a
master's degree in public administration from Harvard
and she studied art and Spanish in Madrid, and
philosophy and religion in Geneva.
Her grandfather, citrus magnate Ben Hill Griffin,
served as a longtime legislator. He was also a friend of
former state Republican Party chairman, Tom Slade, who
hand-picked Harris for her Senate run. Her cousin, J.D.
Alexander, is a state representative.
The Cabinet job, one that has been largely
ceremonial, is being abolished after Harris' current
term, which expires in January 2003.
Harris, who is married to businessman Anders Ebbeson,
listed her net worth as more than $6.5 million as of
December 1999, according to her latest financial
disclosure.
Copyright © 2000 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
November 13, 2000