Three Challenge Harris in Fla. Primary

President Bush, right, talks with Rep. Katherine Harris, R-Fla., left, as Rep. Adam H. Putman, R-Fla., looks on during his arrival at MacDill Air Force Base, Tuesday, May 9, 2006 in Tampa, Fla. Bush's Florida travels put him smack in the middle of a political brouhaha involving his brother and the woman who helped the president win the White House. Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Monday that Rep. Katherine Harris, R-Fla., can't win her campaign to unseat Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Now this is interesting. From Yahoo News:

TAMPA, Fla. - Three relatively unknown candidates qualified Friday to challenge U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris (news, bio, voting record) in the race to win Florida Republicans' nomination for U.S. Senate.

Gov. Jeb Bush and other Republican leaders have been looking for someone to take on Harris because she trails incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson (news, bio, voting record) by about 30 percentage points in public opinion polls. Bush said earlier this week that he didn't believe Harris could beat Nelson.

So the Bushies believe that Katherine Harris can't beat Bill Nelson for the Florida Senate seat. At first, the Republicans were trying to enlist Florida's House Speaker Allan Bense to run against Harris, however Bense refused. In fact, Governor Jeb Bush pleaded with Bense to run for the nomination.

So what do we get now? How about three unknown candidates running against Harris:

The new candidates are LeRoy Collins Jr., son of former Florida Gov. LeRoy Collins; Peter Monroe, a Pinellas County developer; and Windermere businessman William McBride.

Calls to the new candidates were not immediately returned Friday.

Harris would have preferred to have an uncontested primary but is confident she can win, campaign spokesman Chris Ingram said.

Now this is going to get interesting.