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BRUNSWICK -- Chris Gibson's first political awakening came in 1979.

He was 15, watching President Jimmy Carter tell Americans to turn down their thermostats. His father was collecting unemployment, out of work from his job as an elevator mechanic.

"I remember just thinking, 'Is this it? Are our best days behind us?'" Gibson recalled recently. Then he heard Ronald Reagan, with his "sense of hope, his sense of optimism -- and I was attracted to the message."

The same thoughts occurred to him in the summer of 2009 when Gibson, a colonel in the Army, became "concerned" with a growing federal deficit, a burgeoning budget and two wars.

"I wasn't going to sit around and complain. I was going to do something about it," said Gibson, 46. He resolved to represent the 10-county 20th Congressional District in March after returning from a final deployment in Haiti, and kicked off his campaign against Rep. Scott Murphy, D-Glens Falls, at a party in his native Kinderhook.

In seven months, Gibson has proven an energetic and articulate campaigner. He has leaned on his accomplishments and attacked Murphy's support of economic stimulus spending, health care reform and a system to cap and trade carbon emissions credits.