After 15 years \u2013 and a brief foray to Washington \u2013 Marc Molinaro plans to return to the state Assembly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Molinaro officially announced on Monday that he would run for Assembly District 102 upstate following reporting previewing the decision. The Republican left his post as head of the Federal Transit Administration last week, a job President Donald Trump nominated him to a year ago. \u201cIt\u2019s been a great honor,\u201d Molinaro told City & State.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Going from overseeing a federal agency with a $22 billion budget and 10 regional offices to the lower chamber of a state legislature may appear like a downgrade. But the father of four said he wants to spend more time with his family, and sees the Assembly seat as a better fit to serve the community and tackle the state\u2019s biggest problem: Lowering costs. Molinaro said no disagreement with the president, nor national politics, drove his decision to return to a more local office.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know it\u2019s hard for people to understand,\u201d Molinaro said. \u201cI miss having the real roll-up your sleeves and hands-on involvement at a time it\u2019s needed the most.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prior to his stint in the Trump administration, Molinaro already had a lengthy political career. He ran against former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2018, served one term in a Hudson Valley congressional swing district and was Dutchess County executive for over a decade.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And working in the minority isn\u2019t new for Molinaro either, who held an upstate Assembly seat from 2007 to 2011. Democrats also had the White House and Senate while he was in Congress while Republicans controlled the House. \u201cThere\u2019s the quiet work you do without caring who takes the credit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Molinaro is expected to easily win the solid Republican seat, which includes Schoharie and Greene counties, and parts of Albany, Columbia, Delaware, Otsego and Ulster counties. Three Democrats have filed to run. The only Republican candidate, Richard Amedure, has told Molinaro he\u2019s dropping out.<\/p>\n
Molinaro plans to stump for other Republicans this fall as well, including Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman.\u00a0 \u201cWe were county executives together,\u201d Molinaro said.<\/p>\n
If he succeeds, Molinaro would replace Assembly Member Chris Tague, who\u2019s running for state Senate. He said Molinaro is the perfect person to take his place.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tague cited Molinaro\u2019s long record of public service as a benefit for the district. He has held public office in some form since his election to the Village of Tivoli Board of Trustees at the age of 18. Molinaro was elected mayor the following year, becoming the youngest mayor in the U.S. at the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m confident there is no one better suited to represent this district with the same passion and commitment as I have,\u201d Tague told City & State.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no one with the knowledge of how state government operates like Marc does,\u201d Tague added. \u201cHe was a powerhouse when he was there before, and he will be very helpful to both our conference and the entire Assembly as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n
And Molinaro sought to offer assurance that he wants back in the Assembly for the sole purpose of serving in the Legislature rather than using it as a stepping stone to take another shot at becoming governor.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeen there, done that,\u201d he said with a laugh, adding, \u201cThat\u2019s certainly not my intention. I certainly have returned home.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After 15 years \u2013 and a brief foray to Washington \u2013 Marc Molinaro plans to return to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7160,2781,1414,9,11,10,49,51,50,2327],"class_list":["post-143068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-2026-new-york-state-elections","tag-albany-agenda","tag-campaigns-elections","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-news-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}