MARIETTA - Republican gubernatorial hopeful Karen Handel, who visited the Marietta Square for a meet and greet Friday afternoon, shared her thoughts about being endorsed by conservative superstar Sarah Palin.

Palin is the keynote speaker at a Monday rally for Handel in Buckhead, the day before voters head to the polls to decide in Tuesday's runoff election whether former U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal or Handel will be the Republican to face Democrat Roy Barnes in the November General Election.

Handel explained how she came to receive Palin's endorsement.

"You know, Gov. Palin was following the race when she was here in June," Handel said. "... I think she endorsed for the following reason, not anything out of gender, but because I am an outsider. I'm a reformer. I'm the candidate in this race who is not the career politician. I'm going to come in and shake things up, and she knows like I know that what we need here in Georgia, we need fresh new thinking, bold thinking, not career Washington politicians."

Handel said her campaign did not pay Palin for the endorsement or for coming Monday, except for travel expenses.

"I think that's a really vicious, ugly rumor that opponents are putting out in my race and certainly in (South Carolina gubernatorial candidate) Nikki Haley's race as well," Handel said. "And this is the kind of dirty politics that people have had enough of."

She said the "whisper campaigns and the unethical behavior that we've seen from my opponent" is "what people are tired of."

"They want candidates, like myself, who are going to stand up, tell it like it is, and say what needs to be said and get about the business of the people," she said.

Handel's spokesman, Dan McLagan, said campaign finance laws require them to pay the cost of Palin's travel, an amount that has not yet been calculated.

Handel also pledged to be a governor who supports transparency and Georgia's sunshine laws.

"One of the first things, and I've talked about this from day one on the campaign trail, that as part of comprehensive ethics reform we need to ensure that the Open Records Act applies to the Legislature as well as to constitutional officers, state government, local government, and I think it will go a long way to having greater transparency and greater accountability for our state government," she said.

Handel said she wants to maintain a reputation of being accessible to the media.

"And I hope I already have, and as secretary of state and even as Fulton County commission chairman, I went to great lengths to make sure I made myself open and accessible for the reporters," Handel said. "I understand that you're trying to do a job and that is to make sure that information gets to the people of this state, and I recognize that and respect it."

The Journal asked Handel why she and Deal have apparently made the topics of abortion and homosexuality centerpieces of their campaigns, when most Georgians are worried about the economy, jobs and education.

"Well, for me, the centerpiece of my campaign is jobs and education, cutting state government, dealing with the water issue and transportation, and unfortunately my opponent wants to talk about those issues a lot, and candidly the press likes to ask us about it a lot. But you're absolutely right, jobs and getting our economy moving is really the most important task facing the governor coming in, when I come in January," she said.

Handel was also asked what mistakes Gov. Sonny Perdue has made that she would not make.

"Well I think we need to be a little bit bolder in some of the areas like transportation, and so I'm going to take an active role when it comes to transportation planning to make sure that as we move forward, that we have a good partnership with local government. And getting these regional SPLOSTs passed, not just in metro Atlanta but around the state, is going to be critical," she said.

A crowd of more than 100 turned out to greet Handel on the Square, as she was introduced by U.S. Rep. Tom Price (R-Roswell) and flanked by Marietta Mayor Steve Tumlin and Kennesaw Mayor Mark Mathews.

"She honored Marietta by coming and I enjoyed her talk," said Tumlin, who endorsed her earlier this week. "She exhibited good leadership, good thoughts and a lot of passion. I think she's going to win. I think it's been tight the whole way and just the way I'm reading it, just the folks I see, it's going to be a close one, but I think she has the edge," Tumlin said.

Another Handel supporter in the crowd, Cobb Commissioner Helen Goreham, also believes Handel will win the runoff.

"I'm supporting Karen because she has knowledge of local government, and it's about time we had someone sitting in that seat looking after local governments," Goreham said. "She's walked in our shoes. She was chairman of the Fulton County Commission. She understands local government, knows what it takes to run the government."

Deal supporters will get a chance to meet their candidate this morning at the Cobb GOP breakfast held at Williamson Brothers Barbecue. Guests are asked to show up at 7 a.m.