Assemblyman Butler won't run again

PHOTOGRAPHER: File Photo

Assemblyman Marc W. Butler at an event in 2014.

Veteran state Assemblyman Marc W. Butler, whose district includes Fulton County, announced Monday that he won’t seek re-election in 2018.

Butler, 65, is a Republican who has served in the Assembly representing the central Adirondacks since 1995. He said he is announcing his plans not to run again more than a year before the November 2018 election to give prospective candidates time to familiarize themselves with the district, a geographically huge district that extends from Fulton and Herkimer counties in the southern to parts of St. Lawrence County in the north. Butler is from Newport, in Herkimer County, but has a district office in Johnstown.

“A number of highly qualified potential candidates have given me the courtesy of avoiding a divisive primary over the past few terms with the provision that I would provide adequate time for them to prepare campaigns when I do decide to retire,” Butler said in a released statement.

“To their credit, they have kept their word, and I intend to keep mine so that change can be done in an orderly manner,” he said.

Butler said the demands of the job have been difficult on family life. He is married with two children.

Butler has been the ranking Republican on the Assembly Committee on Standing Committees, which oversees the operations of other committees. He is also vice chairman of the Herkimer County Republican Committee.

His best-known recent legislative proposal was one that would have repealed the state’s SAFE-ACT gun control measures in upstate New York, while keeping it in effect in New York City. The measure did not come to a vote in the Assembly, however.

Reach Gazette reporter Stephen Williams at 395-3086, [email protected] or @gazettesteve on Twitter.