Doug Mataconis · · 7 comments

To say the very least, this is unusual:

Karen Handel’s campaign to win the GOP gubernatorial nomination in Georgia got a big boost when she was endorsed by Sarah Palin this summer.

But it can be expensive to be a Mama Grizzly.

As the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Aaron Gould Sheinin reports, Handel paid nearly $100,000 to bring Palin to an August rally ahead of a crucial runoff in the race. According to newly filed campaign reports with the state Elections Commission, Handel’s campaign paid $92,000 to an Ohio-based air charter to fly Palin to the Aug. 9 rally. The campaign also paid $13,000 to rent space at a local hotel to house the event. Handel narrowly lost the GOP nomination to Nathan Deal on Aug. 10.

While it does not appear that Palin charged a speaker’s fee for the event, Handel’s payout is unusual in that Palin’s camp had previously said she wouldn’t ask candidates to cover the costs of her campaigning for them. In an interview last year, then-Palin spokeswoman Meg Stapleton told me that Palin instead planned to cover travel costs through her political action committee, SarahPAC.