They have nearly six decades of Gwinnett County living between them, these two who want the same job.

One grew up just outside Lilburn, a Brookwood boy who rambled country lanes that have changed into suburban thoroughfares.

(ENLARGE)
Linda Carsten
(ENLARGE)
Clay Cox
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The other left New York City 34 years ago, following the four-lanes south until she reached Georgia.

They are neighbors, or nearly so, each living inside Lilburn's corporate limits. They worry about crime, about snaking lines of traffic, about Gwinnett's quality of life.

Linda Carsten says she knows what should be done to make the community a better place.

Clay Cox says the same thing.

Welcome to Georgia House District 102, where Carsten and Cox are competing for the Republican nomination to run for the Legislature.

Whoever wins the July 20 primary in this traditional GOP stronghold qualifies to run in the Nov. 2 general election against Democrat Carl Bergman.

The winner will take the seat held for 18 years by former Rep. Charles Bannister, a Republican who is running for Gwinnett County Commission chairman.

Gangs, HOPE

Carsten, 58, is the native New Yorker. She came to Georgia in 1971, living in DeKalb County for nine years before settling in Lilburn in 1980. She is executive director of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly, an organization created about 40 years ago to woo Hispanics to the GOP.

The mother of six children — the youngest is 18, the oldest, 34 — Carsten is married to Jim Carsten, Gwinnett's sheriff from 1992 to 1996.

She has been active in politics, advising former Republican state Reps. Ralph Johnston and his successor, Gene Callaway.

This is her first race for office.

Carsten cites three issues in her campaign:

• Crime. Gang growth, Carsten said, needs to be watched carefully. She advocates stiffening statutes curtailing gangs and home invasions.

• Building better relationships between nursing homes and the families of clients they serve. She advocates using more ombudsmen to work between administrators and families.

• Strengthening the HOPE scholarship, the lottery-based scholarship that helps fund higher education for Georgia's high school graduates.

Carsten also noted that she is bilingual, a trait she thinks would help her represent the diverse community the district encompasses.

"It makes me more able to understand the people in my district," she said.

Traffic, schools

Cox, 35, is the founder and CEO of Professional Probation Services Inc. of Lawrenceville, a private probation company whose clients include courts in Atlanta, Gwinnett, Albany, New Orleans and Salt Lake City.

A former football player at Western Carolina University, he is Brookwood class of '86 graduate, the father of two boys, 10 and 7. His wife is Alisa Cox.

Like Carsten, he never has held elective office. Unlike her, it's not for lack of trying: In 2002, Cox ran for the 13th Congressional district, losing to Democrat David Scott.

He cites three issues in his campaign:

• Tax reform. He'd like for lawmakers to revise the budget so that Georgia's balance sheet shows a yearly surplus, with leftover funds reverting to taxpayers.

• Education. Teachers should be paid more, Cox said. He also thinks federal authorities should do more to enforce immigration laws, thereby relieving the burden on schools struggling to teach a growing pool of students who don't understand English.

• Traffic. Decrying the growth of new strip malls, which he said worsens Gwinnett's already bad traffic, Cox said developers should be encouraged to use vacant structures rather than erecting new ones.

"It shouldn't take 45 minutes to go from Lilburn to Gwinnett Place mall to get a cheeseburger from a drive-through," he said. "It's ridiculous."