What Is A Political Handler?

Political leaders have always surrounded themselves with advisers, secretaries, advance men and others who help the leader put plans into action. A political handler is one of the “insiders” who provides advice and supports the politician. Duties can vary, depending on the individuals involved, but a handler might be an expert in media issues and public relations, for example.

This individual might help a candidate construct and present a particular image during the campaign, making sure that the candidate looks and sounds as he or she should. The goal, of course, is to get the candidate elected, so the political handler’s tasks are intended to make this happen.

A few decades ago, it may not have been quite so important for candidates and office holders to have handlers. But increased media coverage and the detailed stories that usually circulate about politicians have made skilled public relations and marketing people quite valuable.

The idea of someone “handling” a politician also includes making sure that the candidate or office holder presents a calm and wise exterior to the media and the public. This is crucial to election success and to political success, especially if the politician is natural uneasy in the public eye or prone to social gaffes that could hurt the cause.

Most politicians and candidates for national or state office have press secretaries and public relations experts on staff for these very reasons. But some candidates and office holders add someone whose job is quite different. A true political handler might be responsible for numerous, unspecified tasks. He or she may act as an alter ego or second for the candidate or politician. This position might require the handler to deal with aggressive individuals in a crowd, family members who might help or hurt a campaign, or television/newspaper reporters who don’t “understand” the limits of the game.

In some cases, a political handler works in a much more detailed way, and could be involved in drafting speeches, writing the policy statements for the candidate or office holder and presenting information about social issues to the candidate. Those who seek office or hold an important political position seem to welcome the handler who can fine tune statements and pay attention to policy detail. A good political handler may be able to assume much of the actual “work” that a politician might do, leaving the office holder to be a figure head or to make appearances at certain public functions. (The handler has probably been involved in deciding which functions those will be.)

Rudy Giuliani, the well-known New York politician, has been in the news for some personal and professional reasons that a political handler might have been able to help with. Apparently some of his public statements about presidential duties and authority were questionable and troubling. Had he employed a skilled political handler the media might have focused on another person or on other issues. Political handlers have at least one primary task: protect the candidate or politician from public embarrassment.

 Print This Page