Telegenic. A gifted speaker. Gaffe-prone. A darling of conservatives. A prodigious fundraiser. A target of the left as well as former staffers....
Sound like Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann? Yup. But to Florida Republicans, the description also fits another congresswoman from the state's recent political past: Katherine Harris, the former Florida secretary of state of 2000 re-count fame who flamed out after a 2006 Senate bid against Bill Nelson.
Both Bachmann and Harris also shared the same campaign manager: Ed Rollins, former Ronald Reagan advisor. Rollins, along with deputy David Polyansky, is now gone from the Bachmann campaign. Unlike Harris, though, Rollins is saying nothing but nice things publicly about Bachmann, according to Politico. Also, unlike Harris, Bachmann hasn't weathered staff shake-up after shakeup after staff shakeup. And the Bachmann campaign denies there's a shakeup (which Harris often did as well).
"I've seen the Bachmann show before --it ends with a woman holding a Starbucks cup screaming 'you're gonna be in my book' to everyone and no one," one Florida Republican (a Rick Perry supporter) said, summing up the sentiment of fellow GOPers.
Rollins' and Polyansky's departure probably means that his fellow Harris campaign survivor, Jamie Miller, is less likely to be hired on to the Bachmann campaign in Florida, where the Minnesota congresswoman has no visible footprint. Word is that the campaign is considering two Florida higher-ups from the 2008 presidential campaign: Arlene DiBenigno (a Florida Senate employee who worked on the U.S. Senate campaign of Florida Senate president Mike Haridopolos), and Buzz Jacobs (current campaign director for U.S. Senate candidate Mike McCalister). DiBenigno worked with Bachmann spokeswoman Alice Stewart in the primary campaign of Gov. Rick Scott last year.
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