Is Marc Molinaro running for Assembly?

GREENE COUNTY―It is not being confirmed by Republican Party leaders that Marc Molinaro will be running for the 102nd Assembly District seat.

Nor has Molinaro, a Catskill resident who currently leads the Federal Transit Administration, made any announcement one way or the other.

It was reported in the Mountain Eagle, on February 12, based on talks with multiple GOP insiders, that a surprise candidate would likely be surfacing ahead of the Greene County Republican Committee’s February 21 convention.

Among local Republican committee members, it has not been a big secret that Molinaro was that person, even though no one would officially verify it for reasons apparently linked to the timing of Molinaro leaving the federal post he has held since last August.

Greene County Republican Committee Chairman Brent Bogardus, in a phone interview earlier this week, said it was “speculation” that Molinaro would run for Assembly in the 102nd District that covers all of Greene and Schoharie counties, along with parts of Delaware, Albany, Otsego and Ulster counties.

Republican officials are not commenting about a February 13 report in POLITICO stating that Molinaro “intends to depart the Trump Administration” to seek the Assembly seat, quoting “a person familiar with the matter who requested anonymity to discuss the closely held plans.”

And Republicans are also staying mum about a February 13 press release issued by Thomas Boomhower, one of three Democrats who have thrown their hat into the 102nd ring.

Boomhower, saying he was responding to the POLITICO article, stated, “the 102nd Assembly District deserves a representative who is rooted in this community and focused on its future, not someone looking for a political landing spot after being rejected by these very voters.”

He was evidently referring to Molinaro’s loss to Democrat Josh Riley in a 2024 bid for re-election to the 19th Congressional District.

Molinaro has served in public office since the age of 18 when he was elected to the Village of Tivoli Board of Trustees. A year later, Tivoli voters elected him the youngest mayor in the country.

Since then, he has served as a Dutchess County legislator, New York State assemblyman in the 103rd district, Dutchess County executive and a one-term congressman in the 19th District. He ran for governor in 2018, losing to Andrew Cuomo.

For more than 50 years, Republicans have controlled the 102nd Assembly District seat held by Chris Tague of Schoharie since 2018. Tague announced in November that he was leaving the Assembly to run for the State Senate in the 51st District.

In December, Richard Amedure, a former New York State Senate candidate and retired state trooper, and Windham Town Supervisor Thomas Hoyt both announced that they would be seeking the GOP nod to replace Tague.

There is now widespread theorizing that either Amedure, Hoyt―or both―could be withdrawing from the race, if the Molinaro whispers are true.

And a trio of Democrats hope to break the GOP stronghold. They include Delhi Village Trustee Janet Tweed, Cairo town Democratic Chairwoman Mary Finneran and Boomhower, who was recently elected as a Village of Catskill trustee.

Marc Czermerys, co-chair of the Greene County Democratic Committee, says he expects the three-way contest to go to a primary this summer.

“As a county committee, we will allow all three candidates to speak to us at a panel presentation in mid-to-late March,” said Czermerys.

“We will then back whoever wins the primary unless the candidates, on their own, decide something else,” he added.

“And there is still time for a fourth person to come out. A major part of the message we want to deliver to them, as a committee, is that we work together to win the seat,” Czermerys said.

Tweed has been down this road before, winning a primary and challenging Tague in 2024, though falling short, 46,038 to 26,423.

Finneran who describes herself as “an environmental and social justice advocate,” believes a Democrat is in a better position to pass legislation than a Republican in the Democratic-dominated State government, and that she is the right Democrat for that task.

Boomhower says he is, “positioning himself as the candidate most equipped to address the concerns facing Upstate New Yorkers.”

While the Democrats have been bridesmaids in the 102nd for more than five decades, “in today’s political climate anything is possible,” Czermerys said.

“I believe if we are true to our causes, we have a chance of winning. There won’t be the electoral bump of an incumbent, though it will still be on us to listen to what people are looking for, and delivering,” Czermerys added.

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