Former Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel says she is a conservative with proven results, while her opponents for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination are three members of Congress who have failed to solve problems and a multimillionaire who may not even be a Republican.
The primary for the seven-member field is Tuesday.
“I’m an unwavering conservative who has a track record of getting the job done. More than ever, Georgians are looking for someone they can trust to go to Washington and do the job for them,” said Handel. “Look at the rest of the field. We’ve got congressmen who have been there for 10-20 years. They’ve had every chance to do what they’re now talking about and they haven’t. And then you have this so-called outsider, David Perdue. We don’t know very much about him. He’s running for the Republican nomination and hasn’t even found it appropriate to vote in a Republican primary.
“We need someone like me, who is a solid Republican, a solid conservative my whole life, so we can cut spending, repeal the Obamacare health tax and re-energize this economy by lowering taxes and not raising them like David Perdue has suggested and reducing the burden of regulations on businesses,” she said.
Handel cites her work as the chairwoman of the Fulton County Commission, the largest county in the state, as an example of the leadership she would bring to the Senate. She says she thwarted attempts by Democrats to close a $100 million deficit through massive property tax increases and instead tackled the red ink through spending cuts. While secretary of state, Handel cut department spending by 20 percent and successfully implemented a voter identification requirement for voters.
Rep. Kingston rejects that recap of her career in county government. He says the real story is that Handel increased spending in Fulton County by $46 million during her tenure as chairwoman. Handel rejects Kingston’s message and the messenger.
“Jack Kingston has a lot of nerve, when he’s been in Washington on the Appropriations Committee and sat there keeping the seat warm while this country, through his votes, absorbed debt – 17 trillion dollars in debt,” said Handel. “To put it in perspective, Fulton County’s budget is ab out a one billion dollar budget per year and we worked really hard to roll things back. When we finished up my term, we had the first truly balanced budget that Fulton County had had in decades.”
“(Kingston) raised the debt ceiling for our nation multiple times. He voted for millions in things like the Charlie Rangel Center and the Ted Kennedy Center and has the audacity to talk about saving money from his office budget when he helped contribute to a $17 trillion debt,” said Handel.
She saves her most fierce criticism for Perdue, for accepting millions in stimulus dollars and laying off thousands of textile workers while also allegedly being open to tax hikes in a recent meeting with editors at the Macon Telegraph.
Rivals also slam Handel for her time as a vice president at the Susan G. Komen Foundation. She resigned in 2012 after Komen re-committed to giving money to Planned Parenthood after the organization earlier announced it would stop the practice. Other GOP candidates say Handel characterized the initial denial of money to Planned Parenthood as a simple change in funding criteria rather than an abhorrence of Planned Parenthood, which she later cited in her resignation.
Handel says the plain fact is that Planned Parenthood does not do mammograms and so Komen dollars seemed wrongly prioritized going to the nation’s largest abortion provider. She says Congress is the entity that has much more power to stop the flow of money to Planned Parenthood and has failed to do so.
Perdue appears to be leading in the latest polls, with Handel and Rep. Jack Kingston essentially deadlocked for the all-important second place slot that will advance to a July run-off. Congressmen Paul Broun and Phil Gingrey are a few points behind. The winner of the July run-off will face presumptive Democratic nominee Michelle Nunn, daughter of longtime Sen. Sam Nunn.
Handel, who is endorsed by Sarah Palin, says she is clearly the best choice for Republicans to put up against Nunn.
“We do know what the narrative is going to be that Democrats run in the fall. It’s going to be income inequality and war on women. I look at the debate over income inequality and I know first-hand that the way to move someone up the economic ladder is not with minimum wage jobs and raising the minimum wage. We need to build our economy on good, quality, solid-paying jobs, giver working moms the ability to not have to choose between fixing their car and keeping a roof over their heads,” said Handel.
“And when it come to the war on women, well, I’d like to see Michelle Nunn try to drop that on me,” she said.
