Finneran Launches 102nd District Assembly Campaign

By ERIC SANTOMAURO-STENZEL
CAIRO

Democrat Mary Finneran, a retired educator, artist, union member, and community organizer, has announced her candidacy for the 102nd District for the New York State Assembly. The seat is being vacated by Republican Assemblyman Chris Tague, who is running for State Senate District 51.

Finneran lost the 2024 primary for the Democratic nomination by 77 votes to Janet Tweed, a former Oneonta city councilmember who also recently announced her candidacy for the seat.

“I will bring a fresh perspective to the New York State Legislature,” Finneran said in a press release. “I will fight for issues pertinent to rural and Upstate New Yorkers. As an assembly member some of my concerns will be food insecurity, inadequate health care services, and lack of affordable housing. I will work to strengthen our agricultural sector, road and highway infrastructure, and will advocate for those most in need.”

Finneran said she has served five years on the Cairo Library Board and 11 years on the executive committee of the Coxsackie-Athens Teachers Association, where she was an art teacher. The release also said she was elected to serve five years on the Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter, and currently serves as the environmental committee chair for New York Progressive Action Network. She also said she is a dues-paying member of the Working Families Party and the Democratic Socialists of America.

“I’ve lobbied for years in Albany for the NY Health Act (Medicare for All), to protect funding for public libraries and education, as well as for bills related to protecting the people from climate change, pollution, and toxins, such as PFAS from sewage sludge spreading in our farm fields and elsewhere,” she said.

“I will bring a local voice to local issues including on renewables siting and eminent domain; I believe this issue can be resolved while finding ways to satisfy the energy needs of all. Joni Mitchell said, ‘Pave paradise put in a parking lot’ decades ago; I say ‘Take that parking lot, put in a solar field.’”

The release said the Cairo Democratic Committee, of which Finneran is chair, has endorsed her candidacy.

“I’ve rallied and lobbied so often at the capitol complex that it feels like a second home; I look forward to making it my work home when elected to the assembly,” Finneran said.

In a statement to AllOtsego, Tweed welcomed Finneran to the race and said she looks “forward to sharing our visions with the voters of the 102nd assembly district. People I’ve spoken with are concerned about healthcare access, daily affordability, and economic opportunity, among many other things. There are so many steps we can take here in New York to protect our residents and prioritize people over corporate profits.”

The 102nd District includes Schoharie and Greene counties and parts of Delaware, Otsego, and Albany counties. The district includes northeastern parts of Otsego County, including Cooperstown.