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U.S. National - Reuters


Police: Driver Tried to Run Over Florida Rep. Harris

7 minutes ago U.S. National - Reuters



MIAMI (Reuters) - A Florida motorist was arrested Wednesday on charges of trying to run down U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris (news, bio, voting record) at an intersection where the controversial former state elections chief was campaigning for re-election to Congress.



The Republican lawmaker and several supporters were campaigning alongside a street corner in her hometown of Sarasota Tuesday evening. A silver Cadillac sped toward them, drove up onto the sidewalk where Harris stood, and then swerved away at the last minute, the Sarasota police report said.


No one was hurt. Witnesses noted the car's license tag number and police tracked the owner, Barry Seltzer, 46, of Sarasota, who was jailed early Wednesday on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He said he was annoyed because some of Harris' supporters were blocking traffic, the arrest report said.


"I was exercising my political expression," it quoted him as saying. "I did not run them down, I scared them a little."


Harris was Florida's secretary of state and its top election official during the state's presidential ballot recount battle in 2000. Vilified by Democrats for her role in halting the recounts, she was elected to the House of Representatives in her heavily Republican district in 2002 and faces Democratic challenger Jan Schneider in Tuesday's election.


"Molon labe".
Leonidas, King of Sparta,
Thermopylae, 480 B.C.