Tallahassee, Thursday (FA Wire) - US Representative Katherine Harris (R. FL) announced today that she would not seek the Senate seat vacated by Bob Graham (D. FL), despite the fact that she’d already won the election.

The announcement was particularly disappointing to Harris’ supporters, as just yesterday, Harris’ successor, Florida Secretary of State Glenda E. Hood announced that the final vote count for the 2004 contest between Harris and her Democratic opponent had Harris winning in a landslide.

“After counting and recounting the votes, including the absentee ballots, Katherine won by a margin of 64% to 39%,” said Hood. “So it’s understandable that there’s some disappointment.”


[Senator-elect Katherine Harris displays her winning grimace,
shortly after announcing her decision not to run.]

Some Florida Democrats decried the results, which they claim can’t be accurate given the fact that the elections are still more than nine months away. But Hood dismissed the complaints as “just more liberal sore-loser whining. I checked and rechecked, even soliciting help from Katherine, [Governor] Jeb [Bush], and Katherine’s old staff. It’s a fair count.”

As of today, it was still unclear how the likely replacement GOP candidate, former HUD Secretary Mel Martinez, would fare in next November’s contest. But Hood is optimistic about Martinez’ chances. “We’ve only had time to count a fraction of the votes,” she said. “But with 17% of the precincts reporting, it looks like Martinez has a 72% to 43% advantage. Still, we have to be patient. That’s how democracy works.”