State Sen. Betty Little does not plan to try to run again for the congressional seat that Democrat Scott Murphy won on Friday when Republican Jim Tedisco conceded.
"She anticipates running for New York state Senate in 2010," her spokesman, Dan Mac Entee, said Monday afternoon. "She enjoys being senator. It's a tremendous honor. She would like to continue having the privilege of representing the voters of the 45th District."
New York's 20th District seat opened up after Gov. David Paterson appointed Kirsten Gillibrand to the U.S. Senate in late January, triggering a special election. Mac Entee said Little viewed the open seat as "a unique opportunity to run for Congress and do something different. Since that hasn't worked out, she has refocused on the Senate."
Little is related to Murphy by marriage.
"Betty's daughter's husband's sister is married to Scott," Mac Entee said, referring to Murphy's wife, Jenn Hogan. In other words, Little's daughter is married to Hogan's brother, making her son-in-law Murphy's brother-in-law.
During the campaign, Murphy often spoke in interviews and commercials of his 57 family members who gather for Sunday dinners at his wife's family farm in Washington County. Mac Entee said he doesn't know whether Little's daughter and son-in-law are among the 57.
Murphy will be sworn in Wednesday. He has said he expects to sit on the Agriculture and Financial Services committees once in the House.
A general election for the seat will be held in November 2010, back on regular schedule, and primaries are possible.
Little, a Queensbury Republican, announced her interest in running for the seat the day Paterson appointed Gillibrand to replace Hillary Clinton, whom President Barack Obama had named as his secretary of state. Former gubernatorial candidate John Faso also expressed interest, but the Republican chairs of the district's 10 counties chose state Assemblyman Tedisco, of Glenville, within a week, without letting the candidates address the chairs. Tedisco was Assembly minority leader at the time; he stepped down earlier this month, and the minority leader is now Brian Kolb of Canandaigua.
The vote was too close to call for weeks after the March 31 election, but the absentee ballot count did not go as well for Tedisco as he had hoped, and he conceded Friday. Little told the New York Observer last Wednesday, two days before Tedisco conceded, that Tedisco should "do a good analysis of where he stands" and consider conceding due to Murphy's 273-vote lead at that point in the count.
Little's state Senate district includes six North Country counties. Warren and Washington counties are entirely within the 20th Congressional District, and several Essex County towns, including North Elba and Keene, are in it as well. She made a public appearance with Tedisco in Queensbury about a week-and-a-half before the election, her first during the campaign, and donated $1,000 to his campaign.
Murphy donated $600 to Friends of Betty Little, her campaign fund, in 2008.
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Contact Nathan Brown 891-2600 ext. 26 or nbrown@adirondackdailyenterprise.com.
