HILLTOWNS — Restaurant owner Chris Smith and Republican minority whip Deborah Busch are after the Conservative line headed into the election to decide the 39th District for the Albany County Legislature.

The Democrat-dominated district encompasses the towns of Westerlo and Rensselaerville, most of Berne, and a portion of Knox, where both candidates say the people are essentially working-class and struggle to make their voices heard on higher levels of government.

“The town board has a meeting once a month to talk about problems and I have a mini town meeting every weekend night,” said Chris Smith, who owns Maple on the Lake, a popular restaurant in a large Alpine-style building on the shore of Warners Lake in East Berne. It serves about 400 meals in a weekend, he said, where customers sometimes share with him their concerns about aging relatives or vacant businesses. That discourse pushed him to consider public office, he said.

Busch, a nurse manager at Albany Medical Center, made her name as she campaigned to be county coroner, then to challenge an incumbent Democrat for a seat in the State Assembly. She has held rallies at Smith’s restaurant, when it was in a different location.

Busch had a following as the conservative Tea Party movement gained hold in the Hilltowns, and in 2011 she was elected as a legislator for the 39th district.

With her first term behind her, Busch, 51, said she’s imposing her own term limit, seeking just one more four-year term.

Then, as now, she has focused on taxes as a burden and laws passed by the legislature as being without justification or enforcement. Bans on Styrofoam and toxic toys were too broad as they were written, Busch said, and she suggested such first-in-the-state laws are motivated by lawmakers who want to encourage state legislation.

“If they were going to pass, I wanted to water them down so they did not affect businesses,” Busch, who serves on the Health Committee, said of bills on which she worked.

At 34, Smith has two children and owns three businesses — the restaurant, a contracting company, and a small brewery set up in the basement of the restaurant. Like Busch, he grew up in the Hilltowns. He left only to join the military after high school and started the restaurant in East Berne when he returned.

“I go to Mobile in the morning for a coffee. I’m there for an hour,” said Smith, who talks to people there. “My wife doesn’t understand it.”

In the legislature, Smith said, he wants to keep people in the Hilltowns informed.

Smith is enrolled as a Conservative and is endorsed by the Democrats while Busch is enrolled as a Republican and has been supported by the Conservative Party. On Sept. 10, the party’s voters will get to decide whose name gets the line.

“We have a lively constituency in the Hilltowns,” she said. “They know what they want and they’re not driven by parties.”

 “It’s just that we can’t both hold the position,” Smith said of his opponent. “I think she’s had good ideas.”

Both candidates pointed to the Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act of 2013 as a point of tension for the 39th District. The gun-control law was quickly passed in the wake of an elementary-school shooting in Connecticut, sparking demonstrations asserting gun rights across the state and in municipal meetings.

Two years later, Smith says he would like to see a resolution passed in opposition to the SAFE Act.

With a Democratic majority in the legislature, Busch helped carry through a proclamation, which didn’t require a majority and was signed by 13 legislators. It demanded that the state repeal the SAFE Act.

Several other Hilltown candidates are vying for party lines in the Sept. 10 primaries:

— Sean S. Lyons and Rick Otto for the Conservative line for Berne Town Council;

— Nicholas Viscio and an opportunity to ballot for the Independence Party line for county Legislative District 31;

— Michael Hammond and an opportunity to ballot for the Independence Party line for supervisor in Knox. Vasilios Lefkaditis, who didn’t get the nod at the Democratic caucus for Hammond’s post, is mounting a campaign, urging Independence Party members to write in his name;

— Jeffry Pine and opportunity to ballot for the Independence Party line for assessor in Rensselaerville;

— Kevin T. McGrath and Margaret Sedlmeir for the Independence Party line for town council in Rensselaerville; and

— Dwight T. Cooke and Brian P. O’Keefe for the Independence line for town justice in Rensselaerville.