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Three Challenge Harris in Fla. Primary

By Mitch Stacy / Associated Press

TAMPA, Fla. - Three relative unknowns qualified Friday to challenge Rep. Katherine Harris for the Republican nomination for Senate.

Gov. Jeb Bush and other GOP leaders have been looking for someone to take on Harris because she trails Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson by about 30 points in the polls. Bush said earlier this week that he didn't believe Harris could beat Nelson.

The new candidates are LeRoy Collins Jr., son of former Gov. LeRoy Collins; Peter Monroe, a developer; and lawyer William McBride.

Aubrey Jewett, a political scientist at the University of Central Florida, suggested that three other candidates entering the race would probably work to Harris' advantage.

"The anti-Katherine Harris vote in the Republican Party is probably going to be split up among them," Jewett said.

Monroe managed the liquidation of more than $400 billion in real estate assets from failing savings and loans while heading the Federal Resolution Trust Corp. Oversight Board in the early 1990s.

Collins, 71, is a retired Navy officer with no political experience. His father, considered one of the most important Florida governors of the 20th century, served from 1954 to 1960.

Harris is confident she can win the primary, campaign spokesman Chris Ingram said.

Harris was Florida secretary of state during the recount in 2000 that gave the White House to George W. Bush. Because of her role in the furor, many Republicans came to regard her a hero, while many Democrats despise her.

Some Republicans have expressed fear that her campaign could boost Democratic turnout and drag down the entire GOP ticket in Florida.