First Nikki Haley in South Carolina, now Karen Handel in neighboring Georgia

From Josh Painter:

With a little help from her friend Sarah Palin, former Secretary of State Karen Handel is now the front runner in the GOP governor's race, according to the results of a new statewide poll released Saturday. Atlanta radio station WSB reports:

Bolstered by an endorsement from conservative superstar Sarah Palin, former Secretary of State Karen Handel appears to have surged into the lead of the Republican race for governor, according to a new statewide poll conducted for the Georgia Newspaper Partnership.

The poll of 400 likely Republican primary voters taken Thursday and Friday put Handel in first place with 29 percent of Georgians polled saying she would get their vote. That's up 6 percentage points from an earlier poll that was partially taken before Palin's endorsement on Monday.

Handel is the former Secretary of State and a former Chair of the Fulton County Commissioners. From her website:

[In 2003] Running against two former commissioners and another candidate, Karen campaigned against high property taxes and for ethics reform. She won with nearly 60% of the vote in this heavily Democratic county.

During her tenure leading the most populous county in Georgia, she inherited a budget shortfall of nearly $100 million and was told there was no way to balance the budget without raising taxes. Karen said, “Bring it on.” She made the strategic cuts needed and balanced the county budget three times without raising taxes.

Georgians will go to the polls Tuesday to vote in the primaries of the two major political parties.

Josh is a longtime contributor to LR, and blogger for Texas for Palin.