Courting the gay vote can be radioactive in a statewide race in Georgia, particularly in a Republican primary where the electorate tilts heavily to the right.
Atlanta has a sizable gay population, but the state is largely Republican. Even many Democrats are conservative on social issues. A constitutional ban on same-sex marriage was adopted by a 76 percent vote in the state in 2004.
Handel and Deal have in recent days been feuding furiously over whether Handel flip-flopped on her support for domestic partner benefits. The back-and-forth is intensifying as voters begin to tune into the campaign, with the election less than 40 days away.
It's widely expected the seven-person Republican primary on July 20 will result in a runoff between the top two finishers because none of the candidates will earn the needed 50 percent plus one of the vote to win outright. Deal - a former Republican congressman from Gainesville - and Handel are fighting to make the cut.
At the center of the dustup is Handel's stance on taxpayer-funded domestic partner benefits.
Handel says she opposes the benefits and in 2006 - when she was running for secretary of state - voted against expanding them as chairwoman of the Fulton County Commission.
But e-mails sent from Handel's account in 2002 to the head of the Georgia Log Cabin Republicans appear to tell a different story.
"I do support domestic partner benefits, and confirm my position here," Handel wrote to Marc Yeager on July 29, 2002.
Yeager provided copies of his e-mails with Handel to The Associated Press and several other media outlets.
Handel said the e-mail - signed "Fondly, Karen" - was actually written by Matt Montgomery, the campaign manager in the Fulton County race, and that it misstated her position.
Yeager isn't buying it.
"I never had any kind of idea or feeling that I was communicating with someone other than Karen," Yeager told The AP.
Handel, he said, also told him in conversations that she supported domestic partner benefits. He's convinced her position on the issue has changed as her political aspirations have. Fulton County is home to a large and politically active gay community. Voters that are critical to winning a race there can be a liability in a statewide contest.
"It's frustrating because it makes you cynical about the whole political process," Yeager said.
Montgomery did not return a phone call seeking comment but told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution he wrote the message.
Deal's campaign has been attacking Handel for what they say is her "liberal gay rights record." They've accused her of supporting gay adoptions, which she has denied. And they have seized on the e-mail exchange with Yeager, saying it demonstrates she's willing to say anything to get elected.
Deal spokesman Brian Robinson said her denials have "turned her campaign into a punchline."
"It could have been a policy debate, but Handel's clumsy cover-up turned it into a character issue," he said.
Handel fired back that Deal was employing scare tactics in an effort to win.
"This is an age-old strategy where you yell 'gay' and say 'who hates gays the most,'" she said.
Handel's campaign later pointed to a pair of votes that Deal made soon after entering Congress to demonstrate his hypocrisy on gay issues.
In 1993, Deal voted against an amendment that sought to require the Defense Department to ask individuals entering the armed forces if they are homosexual. The following year, Deal supported an amendment to weaken a measure that would have prevented any educational agency receiving federal funds from advocating homosexuality as a positive alternative lifestyle.
Handel spokesman Dan McLagan said the votes showed Deal's hypocrisy. Robinson said Deal voted the same way as former House Speaker and conservative commentator Newt Gingrich on the "arcane amendments."
The bitter back-and-forth is expected to be a prelude for the weeks to come.
And it isn't the first time a perceived shift on gay rights have tied a Georgia governor's campaign in knots. In 2006, Democrat Cathy Cox came out in favor of a special legislative session to reinstate a ban on gay marriage after it was thrown out by a Superior Court judge. Two years earlier she had had blasted the state's Republican-authored gay marriage ban as "unnecessary."
Cox struggled to explain her change of heart and ended up angering both sides. Cox was defeated by then-Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor, who went on to lose to Republican Sonny Perdue in the general election.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2010/6/225578