Former Komen exec. who pushed to defund Planned Parenthood weighing Senate bid

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/11/22/former-komen-exec-who-pushed-to-defund-planned-parenthood-weighing-senate-bid/




Former Komen exec. who pushed to defund Planned Parenthood weighing Senate bid
By Jonathan Terbush
Thursday, November 22, 2012 12:13 EST

A former aide to Handel who worked on her failed 2010 gubernatorial bid told the magazine that she was considering challenging Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R) to a primary contest in 2014. Kay Godwin, a co-chair of Georgia Conservatives in Action, said she was hearing similar noise about a possible primary challenge, according to the Standard.

Handel fell 2,500 votes shy of winning the Republican gubernatorial primary in 2010, losing a runoff to then-Rep. Nathan Deal, who went on to win the general election. That primary drew wide national attention from party heavyweights, with prominent names like Newt Gingrich and Mike Huckabee backing Deal, and Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney endorsing Handel.

Handel ran on a staunchly anti-abortion platform in 2010; Palin said she offered her endorsement in part because Handel would “walk the walk” on curbing abortion.

Yet Handels’ rise to notoriety came this year when, as a top executive at Susan G. Komen, she became the figurehead for the group’s decision to terminate funding to Planned Parenthood amid the broader national push by Republicans to defund the organization. Susan G. Komen, the nation’s largest breast cancer charity, had for years given thousands of dollars annually to Planned Parenthood in the form of grants for cancer screenings, but Handel argued the money could fund abortions, and so should be discontinued.