Is Handel Pro-Women?

I know it may seem like a strange question, being that she is one and all, but while there’s been lots of press about whether or not Karen Handel is “pro-life,” there’s been no press about whether or not she is pro-women. The record suggests, she’s not.

For example, judging from her political contributions, the clear answer is “not so much.” In fact, when Karen Handel introduces Sarah Palin on Monday, it will be the first thing she’s done to help elect another woman since 2005. (Yes, I believe Palin will not be able to resist running for President and that this visit has lots more to do with her own ambition than  her affection for Karen Handel.) If Handel’s put her money where her heart is, then she loves various Republican parties, she loves herself and she really, really loves Sonny.

I ran a search on the State Ethics Commission website and found that since 2006, Karen Handel has not contributed one thin dime toward helping elect other women in Georgia. Not one single direct contribution to a female candidate. Perhaps she didn’t want to create any competition for herself. And don’t even start about how contributions to Republican Parties really help women candidates. Hello? Have you counted the number of Republican women in, say, the Georgia Senate? Go count, and get back to me.

Then, I checked the Secretary of State website, and found one single contribution to, wait for it, Kathy Cox, our uber-effective state school superintendent who also resigned her office. Seems to be a pattern for these women.

Why is this a problem for me? Because I, along with a lot of others, spend a lot of time and money working to elect women. The networks of support that naturally exist for male candidates do not exist for women, so we have to build them. Those best able to build them are elected women who offer a hand up to their sisters. Karen Handel, one of a handful of women who have been elected to statewide office, used Sonny’s ladder, then pulled it up behind her.