Saturday mutiny: The floundering campaign of Rep. Katherine Harris, a Republican, to take the seat of Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat, took a triple hit yesterday when four top advisers resigned:

Congresswoman Katherine Harris’ U.S. Senate bid suffered a surprising setback Saturday with the resignation of her campaign manager, press secretary, media consultant and outreach director.

“I didn’t know I was going to get the knives in my back from my own party, and I’ll be honest, it’s infiltrated my campaign staff.”
– Harris

“I was told if I didn’t get out of the race, I would have an April surprise,” Harris said at a meeting at the First Baptist Church of Cocoa Beach, where she met with about 50 Brevard County Republican stalwarts Saturday morning. She said she could not verify who warned her.

“I didn’t know I was going to get the knives in my back from my own party, and I’ll be honest, it’s infiltrated my campaign staff . . . For too long, we have been undermined by people in our own party and staffers in our own campaign.”

Harris said campaign manager Jamie Miller, campaign spokeswoman Morgan Dobbs, director of field operations Megan Ortagus and media consultant Adam Goodman have been replaced by people who will be publicly announced next week.

“We have real professionals coming on board,” Harris said.

Former campaign manager Jim Dornan, who resigned in November, disagreed.

“She had the best people in the country. This is a campaign that is spiraling downward by the minute and the smartest thing for her to do would be to get out of the race,” Dornan said. “Katherine’s trying to run it and a candidate can’t run her own campaign. It’s foolish for her to try.”

The resignations follow a half-dozen others from Harris’ campaign in recent months.

“I don’t think we’ve ever had anything quite like it,” said David Colburn, a history professor at the University of Florida and the author of several books on Florida politics. “I can’t help thinking what the Republican Party is going to do.”

Meanwhile, recent polls show that the incumbent, Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat, maintains a healthy lead:

Nelson, who was targeted by the White House as one of five “red state” Democrats who might be toppled, remained above 50 percent [at 51 percent] in the Mason-Dixon Florida Poll.

Nelson’s lead was bolstered by a crossover vote of 21 percent of Republicans in the survey. By contrast, only 7 percent of Democrats said they would support Harris.

“I’m just going to keep doing the job people elected me to do,” Nelson said of the numbers.

Harris, a second-term congresswoman from Sarasota, has been a controversial figure in Florida politics since her role as secretary of state in the 2000 presidential election. But her decisions upholding President Bush’s 537-vote victory in the state made her a national star in GOP circles.

Florida Republican Party spokesman Jeff Sadosky said Nelson’s 51-percent showing was sluggish. And her 35-percent support seemed untarnished by recent controversy about Harris returning campaign money to a defense contractor who admitted bribing a California congressman, some high-level staff resignations and news reports that Republican leaders were hoping for another standard-bearer.