Marshall Stanton Harris, a powerful Democratic legislator from Miami-Dade County in the 1960s and '70s -- and running mate of then-Florida Attorney General Jim Smith in an unsuccessful 1986 bid for governor -- died Monday of cancer at his Coral Gables home, said his son, Andrew. He was 77.

Harris, who served in the Florida House from 1966 to 1974, chaired the Appropriations Committee and was known for his mastery of state budgets. ``Brilliant'' is the most common term applied to Harris by old Tallahassee allies asked to remember him.

``I appointed him to head Appropriations even though he didn't have seniority,'' Dick Pettigrew, speaker of the House during much of Harris's tenure, told The Miami Herald on Monday. ``But he was so bright and such a team player.''

Arriving in Tallahassee on a wave of new blood from the cities after statewide reapportionment, Harris ``fashioned an agenda to respond to urban needs as the `pork chop era' ended and a more urban legislature began,'' Pettigrew said.

``He dramatically increased funding for education, increased the miserable amount that families got from what we called Aid to Families With Dependent Children -- to 80 percent of the poverty level from $85 a month for a family of four or more -- and saved the Land and Water Management Act,'' a sweeping, 1972 conservation and land-use plan that then-state Sen. Bob Graham had introduced late in an extended legislative session.

``I didn't understand a lot of the concepts,'' said Pettigrew, ``so we turned it over to Marshall, who brilliantly worked his way through it.''

Harris was instrumental in changing the way Florida allocated money for schools so that counties like Miami-Dade, with higher living costs, got a bigger share than rural areas, enabling them to attract and retain quality teachers.

The 1970 ``equalization'' revision of the school funding law added $83 million in new state money to local systems, giving more to ``pupil-rich, tax-poor'' counties unable to raise enough local taxes to cover rising costs. Harris called it ``a giant step forward [toward] better schools for all our children, wherever they were born.''

Harris headed a group that fought, successfully, against a property-tax cut that would have slashed county services in 1979, but over the next few years couldn't help save the debt-ridden Florida Philharmonic, as its president.

Harris served on the Florida Board of Regents, championed gay rights, worked for a countywide EMS system and pushed through legislation to create the Dade County Community Revitalization Board after Miami's 1980 riots.

``His leadership was all cerebral,'' Graham, who went on to become governor and U.S. senator, said Monday. ``People liked Marshall and, therefore, they listened to his insightful comments and, in most cases, followed his leadership.''

Born in Detroit, Harris he was 2 when his family moved to South Florida. After graduating from Miami Beach High School, he earned both an undergraduate and a law degree from Harvard University.

He spent two years in the U.S. Army in Korea. Returning to Miami, he joining a law firm and, in 1958, married Harriet Lipton, a childhood friend.

He was general counsel to Dade Federal Savings & Loan and headed the Jewish Federation and the United Way before running for the House.

Gov. Reubin Askew quickly grew to admire and depend on Harris in Tallahassee.