She's never held elected office, but 71-year-old Peggy Armstrong says she has had experience running political campaigns. So challenging incumbent Renee Unterman for the Georgia Senate didn't seem like such a big jump.

"I'm a very active person; I've fought many rezonings," said Armstrong, who lives in the Edgewater subdivision off Collins Hill Road in greater Suwanee. "I'm really a get-it-done person."

A Gwinnett native, Unterman is a political veteran who served first as mayor of Loganville, then moved on to the Gwinnett County Commission. She next served in the Georgia House before being elected to the state Senate.

She chairs the Senate ethics committee and is the vice chairman of the health and human services panel. She also serves on both the rules and appropriations committees.

Most important to people in District 45, Armstrong said, are taxes, transportation, water and illegal immigration. Armstrong advocates closing the borders and following the rule of law. She says taxes on businesses and individuals trouble residents.

"We can't continue to fund everything and raise taxes on the backs of small businesses and individuals," said Armstrong, a retiree who worked as an account manager for Harland and as a property manager in Buckhead. She is widowed, with two grown children, and is the vice president of Senior ALTA League.

Unterman says the biggest issues in large District 45 include the economy, traffic congestion, health care and tax reform. Her initiative to enact a regional sales tax plan to pay for transportation improvements failed during the end of this past legislative session.

"I support the Brain Train and am open to any alternative," said Unterman, 54, who is divorced with two children. "I have reservations about MARTA because it has too many internal problems in the organization. But if we don't get our traffic problem resolved, it's really going to be detrimental to Gwinnett."

She is concerned there isn't a Level 1 trauma center in the county, which has a population of almost 1 million people.

Health care is a personal issue for Unterman as well as a political one. The former nurse is an insurance executive for Amerigroup Corp., a community maintenance organization.