Outside Groups Have Spent Over $9 Million to Prop Up Karen Handel
Today, End Citizens United (ECU) called on Karen Handel to tell outside groups backed by Dark Money that are propping up her campaign to disclose their donors or pull their ads from the air. To date, over $9 million has been spent by these groups in an effort to keep her campaign afloat. Karen Handel, who was opposed to undisclosed money before she was for it, has shown her true colors and become all but completely reliant on Dark Money to prop up her campaign, even refusing to condemn it in a debate last week.
As outlined by ThinkProgress last week, Handel’s hypocritical stance towards Dark Money has been striking – condemning it when it suited her political career as she prepared a run for governor, only to rely on it today in her House campaign. One Super PAC, Congressional Leadership Fund, has poured in over $7 million to boost Handel’s campaign – much of it spent to attack Jon Ossoff. Congressional Leadership Fund has received the vast amount of its money from American Action Network, a Dark Money group which doesn’t disclose its donors. Other groups that have jumped in for Handel that don’t disclose their donors include End Spending and U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
“This is the most expensive House race in U.S. history, and Georgians deserve to know who is trying to buy the seat. But Karen Handel refuses to take a stand to get Big Money out of politics now that it is in her corner,” said Tiffany Muller, president and executive director of End Citizens United. “Karen Handel’s hypocrisy is a frightful insight into her character and her willingness to do or say whatever helps her career – even at the expense of everyday Georgia families.”