Send This Story
Woman Of The Year Nominee: Madam Secretary
Karen Handel, Georgia Secretary of State
by Charles Molineaux
March 1, 2007
Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel wants to run her department more like a business and she's already taken steps to make that happen, developing what she calls “a new culture” within the agency. “The bottom line,” she says, “is to serve the people of Georgia. My job is to make sure that everyone keeps that as their number one priority regardless of what their job is.” For starters, the office already puts in a longer day with hours that now run from 8 am to 5:30 pm.
Handel returns to the State Capitol, where she used to be Governor Sonny Perdue's Deputy Chief of Staff, after serving as Chairman of the Fulton County Commission. Her election makes her Georgia's first Republican Secretary of State in more than a century.
She describes her new job as a diverse one, involving a broad spread of responsibilities and new levels of frustration, such as an online corporate renewal system that didn't work when it was launched in December.
Atlanta Woman: Your new office is only two blocks from your previous one as chairman of the Fulton County Commission. How has that transition been?
Handel: Certainly there's a big physical difference. For me, it was the monumental understanding of how much confidence and faith the people of Georgia were putting in me. Certainly the same was true at Fulton County. This is just orders of magnitude bigger.
I think the afternoon I was sitting, waiting to be sworn in, was the moment where everything really sunk in. I can remember sitting there and holding my husband Steve's hand and I looked at him and I just said, ‘Can you even believe this?’ I am an unlikely person to be where I am and it just goes to show what having a lick of common sense and working really hard can do for a gal.
AW: Why are you an “unlikely person?
Handel: If you look at – over the course of history – people who hold statewide office, it's generally not a young gal who left home at 17 and went to college at night and started her career as a clerk typist. But I've been extremely fortunate and blessed. I've had people who saw things in me that I didn't see in myself and gave me opportunities. Then, of course then it became up to me to seize the opportunity and do my best and to prove myself in the role.
AW: You've already been talked about as a possible candidate for future office. Why are you laughing?
Handel: People's capacity to sit around and ponder all that stuff is just amazing to me. It's just funny.
AW: Will the vote photo ID challenge continue?
Handel: Not if we do the right thing on the issue. Photo ID is a question of ‘ when,’ not ‘if.’ But it's how you go forward with the implementation. It is imperative that there be a very strong robust education and outreach program for any type of a Photo ID program.
I have an extremely high responsibility to communicate to the voters of Georgia about any change, whether it's photo ID or any other change to our process. We're going to take all that very seriously and make sure we have a good implementation time period and a good implementation program.
AW: Did you like campaigning for statewide office?
Handel: I'm not sure whether to refer to it as the worst best experience of my life or the best worst experience of my life.
There were a lot of really fun, fun moments but campaigns are by nature intense and difficult. I hope people will say I handled myself well in the campaign. I think sometimes the measure of an individual is not so much what you do or say but how you respond when the chips are down or things get really, really tough in a campaign. There certainly were some of those moments. It's always better to take the high road, even when sometimes you're inside just screaming
AW: Any real low points?
Handel: Gosh, there was a time when Steve and I drove to Savannah for the afternoon for a reception, with six people, and we drove right back.
It was at the Mulberry Inn and they were so great because they gave us those incredible chocolate chip cookies, so that took care of my husband and young Robert who worked for the campaign. Some of the back and forth can get difficult but you try to stay focused on your campaign.
AW: How about high points?
Handel: Most people do not get up in the morning and say, “wow, let's go to Sylvester” or “let's go be in a parade in Cotusa County.” This is an amazing state and we have amazing people and, win or lose, that was just an incredibly wonderful time to be able to go out.
I really approach this as ‘it is my job.’ That's something that's important for me to understand, that I&'m here to do work and get the job done. The politics of things, that's in the campaign, and that's over. Now is the time to get down to work.
AW: Can you get away from the politics?
Handel: Absolutely. You have to make a decision to do that. But I try. My approach to issues is that I need to look through the facts, figure out what is the best, right, thing to do, and then make the decision based off that, and manage politics afterwards. If you do the right thing, you can figure out how to manage the politics.
