Karen Handel continued her robust fundraising pace into the final days of the Secretary of State runoff with over $134,000 raised just since July 1. Meanwhile, Insider Advantage is reporting that her opponent Bill Stephens has not filed his campaign disclosure as required by Georgia law. All candidates in runoffs were required to file their reports by midnight this past Friday, and all statewide candidates except Stephens have complied with this requirement. He still had not filed is disclosure as of 4 PM Sunday, August 6, 2006.

According to the Handel camp, just two years after paying the largest ethics fine in the history of Georgia, Stephens is once again flouting state election laws. The reports are filed electronically, making them available within minutes of being filed on the Ethics Commission website. There is no reasonable explanation for any candidate to be two days late filing a report.

Fortunately, this is occurring before Tuesday’s election, and Republicans have the opportunity to nominate an ethical leader who obeys our election laws. Karen Handel passed the toughest ethics regulations in the state as Chairman of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners. She will be a strong addition to our Republican ticket with Governor Perdue in the fall.

All are urged to go to the polls on Tuesday and vote for Karen Handel for Secretary of State.

Karen Handel continues to be the only candidate in the race to put forth a detailed plan on what she will do as our next Secretary of State. Please pass along this e-update to your friends so they can see first hand that Karen is the best candidate for the job.

Every newspaper in the state that has endorsed in this race has chosen Karen Handel. Here are a couple of the latest endorsements.

Savannah Morning News’ Primary Runoff Pick:

Secretary of State (Republican): Karen Handel.

Mrs. Handel, 44, of Roswell has served four years as chairman of the Fulton County Commission, leading efforts to audit spending and make government more efficient. She's a former top aide to Gov. Sonny Perdue and former president and chief executive of the North Fulton County Chamber of Commerce. Her background and experience would serve her well in this largely administrative post.

Her opponent, Sen. Bill Stephens, has the support of a number of prominent Republicans, including State Senate President Pro Tempore Eric Johnson of Savannah. Unfortunately, he has baggage - a hefty $14,000 fine by the State Ethics Commission two years ago for sloppy campaign fund accounting. Given this office's oversight of elections, that's a strike against him.

The Macon Telegraph’s Republican run-off endorsements:

Secretary of State

The race between Fulton County Commission Chairwoman Karen Handel and state Rep. Bill Stephens has gotten testy. Both have experience, but Handel has a wider scope of accomplishments. As Fulton County's chief she's trimmed the budget by $35 million and rooted out corruption in the sheriff's office. She wants to reform the absentee voting procedure and close the turnaround time for licensing.

Karen Handel is the best Republican candidate for the job.

On the last Saturday before the runoff, Karen had a full day of campaigning. She started in Lawrenceville with the Gwinnett GOP, where a crowd of nearly 100 Republican activists were overwhelmingly in support of her and her conservative message. Gwinnett County was an area that Karen carried very strongly, beating her nearest opponent by nearly 20 percentage points and taking in over 15,000 votes. In her remarks, Karen highlighted her record of accomplishments at Fulton County, talked about her plans for the office of Secretary of State, and discussed the need for the strongest Republican ticket on the ballot in November.

Karen headed next to Perry in Houston County for the Governor’s 3rd annual Fish Fry where she joined nearly 2,000 party faithful in support of Governor Perdue. Governor Perdue’s home county was another area where Karen did extraordinarily well – winning the county with nearly twice the number of votes of her opponent. Nearly 2,000 party faithful came together at the Fish Fry, and as anyone there can attest, the crowd was overwhelmingly in support of Karen. Hundreds of bumper stickers, yard signs and lapel stickers were handed out to the many Karen Handel supporters in attendance.

Following the Fish Fry, it was over to Watkinsville in Oconee County for a GOP rally with Governor Perdue, Senators Chambliss and Isakson, and Congressman Norwood. While the rally was cut a bit short due to rain and thunder, Karen was enthusiastically received by the approximately 200 people in attendance.

Source: Georgians for Karen Handel, Inc.