ASSEMBLY DISTRICT 100, NY — Go to Gary Linton’s website and click on the “About Gary” link, and the first sentence to appear is, “Born and raised as a registered Republican in Warwick, New York, I graduated from Orange County Community College with an AAS Degree in Social Science.”

Linton is aiming to take the New York Assembly seat that has been held by Democrat Aileen Gunther since 2003, when she was elected to fill the position left open because of the death of her late husband, Jake. New York State District 100, which is slightly revamped from the former 98 District due to the results of the 2010 census, now includes all of Sullivan County except for the Town of Neversink, and the towns of Wallkill and Mount Hope and the City of Middletown in Orange County.

Linton spent most of his career in various positions related to law enforcement. However, according to his website—www.garylinton.com—he served for four years as the executive director of the Port Jervis-based Tri-State Chamber of Commerce. He writes, “Unfortunately, due to the Obama economy and the loss of businesses, the chamber suffered and was not able to implement a member development strategy which depleted the monetary flow. Unable to procure another executive position during the height of unemployment, I turned back to law enforcement to support my family.

While I am presently the Chief of Public Safety at the Pine Ridge Community Association in Bushkill, PA, and do love law enforcement, my passion has become fighting for and helping small business.”

Gunther spent a large part of her career as a nurse and she remains a registered nurse. Her website—aileengunther.com—says, “As a result of her health care expertise, Aileen was named a member of the Sullivan County Local Emergency Preparedness Council following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. To combat the increasing number of cases of HIV and AIDS in Sullivan and Orange counties, Aileen became a member of the AIDS Task Force in 1996 and has been a trained HIV Counselor since 1998.”

Linton’s website focuses on his desire to bolster the business community in New York State. He writes, “Capitalism is not a dirty word. Capitalism is simply defined as economic freedom. It’s the freedom that allows a person to start a business, take chances, run with new ideas and make a profit. Profit is not a dirty word. Profit allows businesses to grow, create more jobs, stimulate the markets, support their communities more, give to charities more, support education, allow ancillary businesses to start and support them. Capitalism has brought more positive changes to our society in the past 100 years than all of the centuries leading up to this one.”

Gunther’s website focuses on her career in the assembly. It says, “Aileen has successfully fought to lower the local tax burden on working families and improving the local economy. She helped eliminate the marriage penalty and the sales tax on clothing under $110. Additionally, she helped create a child tax credit and fought to cap the sales tax on gasoline. She has authored a law to provide a real property tax credit to help communities attract and retain volunteer firefighters.