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Lansing's representative to the Tompkins County Legislature has formed an exploratory committee to decide whether he will run for the New York State Senate.  Mike Sigler (R) says he will be a strong candidate to challenge Town of Rose Supervisor Kenan Baldridge (D) for the seat held by Senator Mike Nozzolio for 14 years.  In a field of at least a dozen potential Republican candidates, Sigler is working hard to earn the endorsements of all six county Republican Committees within the district. 

"I think I have the most experience of anybody in the race," he says.  "I'm certainly in the highest level of government.  (Being a county legislator) is the closest to what a state senator would do.  It's a different skill set from town supervisor.  Tompkins has a big budget, a lot of moving parts.  It's a challenging environment for a Republican. All those things strengthen me in that regard."

After 14 years as a New York State Senator, Mike Nozzolio announced that he would not run after the finish of his current term because of scheduled heart surgery that was successfully completed last week.  After the obvious choices, Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb and Assemblymen Robert Oaks and Gary Finch declined to run, candidates from across the district put their names in the hat to fill the void.

But Sigler says he has the most experience at the highest form of government (a county legislature) of all the candidates, has the longest service as an elected official, and is the only one who has run a state-wide campaign.  He says that being a Republican Legislator in a Democratic bastion like Tompkins County has made him more skilled at working with opponents than the other potential candidates, and cites two failed campaigns as learning experiences that he has benefited from.  Sigler hopes to impress the Tompkins, Cayuga, Wayne, Ontario, Seneca, and Monroe County Republican Committees with the best name recognition and the beginnings of a war chest.

"If I can walk into that May 25th meeting with some money and some name recognition, that's the big thing right now," Sigler says.  "Nobody has name ID.  Everybody running is maybe known in their town, but beyond that they're probably known by less than 5% of the district. "

	"People always ask me what's next for you after being a county legislator?  Nothing.  This was it.  I really was going to be happy being your county legislator as long as people will have me.  And I'm still there.  I want to serve the people of Lansing.  That's why I want to run for this seat.  If I were in the State Senate the Town of Lansing would have one of its own representing it at the state level.  That would be great."

To achieve that Sigler says he is meeting with Republican Committee chairs and members, as well as district attorneys in all six counties.  His exploratory committee has also begun raising funds that could fuel a campaign.  The six committees will meet at the end of this month to vote on which candidate they plan to endorse.

Although Nozzolio is from the northern part of the 54th district he has been very attentive to Lansing, the only Tompkins County township in the district.  He has shown up at the Lansing Community Library with checks multiple times, and has made a point of listening to Lansing residents, for example, when the railroad closed off one of two railroad crossings at Ladoga Park (it was eventually reopened).  Sigler says he wants to represent the whole district, and is already working hard to reach out and learn about the issues in all six counties.

"Mike's a role model in that respect," he says.  "I look at how politicians either stay in office or lose office.  You look art Al Gore and people say he should have won, that he won the popular vote.  You know what?  If he had won his home state of Tennessee he would have been President.  Why did he lose Tennessee?  Because he didn't pay much attention to it.  That's kind of the rule of law in politics.  You've got to be on the ground and you have to be attentive to people's needs."

Sigler has lost two elections, but says the lessons learned from those campaigns provided valuable experience and lessons that give him an edge over the other Republicans who are considering running.  In 2002 he challenged Barbara Lifton for the 125th Assembly District seat.  He ended up getting 12,806 votes (40%), winning Cortland, but not Tompkins County.  It was not enough to defeat Lifton.  Today he says he had little chance of winning against Lifton, who is quite popular in her district.  But the experience of running a campaign for state office was invaluable, something he can bring to the Senate race.

His second loss was to Pat Pryor when he ran for a second term on the Tompkins County Legislature in 2009.  Accused of not being engaged enough as a Legislator, he lost by seven votes.  He challenged Pryor again four years later, winning the seat back by 48 votes.  Sigler says that taught him he needed to actually be more engaged and available to his constituents.

"That's where you get the learning process, and that's why I say sometimes it's good to lose," he says.  "It gives you that kind of call, like listen, you didn't do so great here, but we're willing to give you another shot.  And that's what I think is great about Lansing. For me, people said we're going to give you another shot and see how you do.  I feel much more comfortable in the job now than I did in my first term.  I certainly think I've been much more out there and I have a much better sense of the public.  That's really helped me, I think."

Sigler says that it is important to live in the district you represent, meaning spend as much time there as possible.  He notes that by the time the election takes place he will have earned his pilot's license, which would make it easier to commute to and from Albany.

Most of the 54th district seems happy to vote conservatively.  In 2010 Nozzolio won a commanding victory over Edward O'Shea (D).  In 2008 Nozzolio handily beat Paloma Capanna in the state-wide vote with 71% of the vote (80,944) to challenger Paloma Capanna's 29% (32,342).  Capanna actually beat Nozzolio in Lansing with 51% of the votes.

"I believe that, but I also believe a Democrat can win," he says.  "You look at someone like (former Congressman) Michael Arcuri.  He won that district, and he was able to hold that district, at least one time.  So it's not impossible for a Democrat to win.  The good thing about coming out of Tompkins, and I use this as a selling point, is when you go to the other counties, they are more Republican.  A lot of people that may be in the race right now -- they've never been challenged.  Their ideas have never been challenged."

That will mean working hard to get the Republican endorsement, and then working hard to win the election.  Sigler says that the counties in the 54th District are similar in farming, high tech business, and tourism, noting that the recent choice of Harriet Tubman to be depicted on the $20 bill will bring new tourism to the district.

In addition to supporting these industries he says some of the key issues are reducing state mandates that make it hard for New York businesses and school districts to function, including absolutely eliminating the GEA (Gap Elimination Adjustmen.  He says that even though the current State Legislature has gotten rid of most or all of the GEA, it is low hanging fruit for Albany politicians whenever state cofferes get low, so needs continual monitoring.  he also wants to provide tax relief.

"The number one thing you hear about from the counties and a lot of taxpayers is they don't like state mandates," he says.  "If I were a state senator the one thing I would want to roll back is the Medicare mandate.  If you can do just that, if you can go meet with the counties and say the State is going to take this over, just like it happens in 48 other states, you're going to return the money saved here to the taxpayers."

Another key issue for Sigler is creating a friendly environment for business to attract companies to the state and increase jobs.

"I think the state has become very comfortable with nibbling around the edges and not looking at the problem as being as stark as it really is," he says.  "We're pretty comfortable being the 49th worst in taxes.  I keep looking at that going why are we OK with that?  We're not the worst by a little.  We're the worst by a country mile.  I think we need dramatic cuts.  Andrew Cuomo put out this ad campaign saying business is back and open in New York State.  It cost a lot of money, but let's put the money aside for a second.  I  know a guy down in Florida.  There were a lot of New Yorkers sitting around and that ad came on and people are just laughing!  Instead of marketing it, just do it.  Make it better for business.  Lower the regulations."

He also says he would focus on infrastructure, something that is in poor shape state-wide.

	"There may be a primary.  I don't rule that out and I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing.  If you can keep it above board.  In a way primaries show you who has the fire to do it.  I told them I want this job.  If I run for this I want it.  I'm not running because it's a cool position.  I'm not running because that would be a great thing on my resume.  I serve on the County Legislature because I like serving the people that I live with.  It's about somebody calling you and saying 'I need this done' and you're able to actually do something about that."

"We're doing this big investment on a solar company in Buffalo," he complains.  "People are looking at that, going you are not a venture capitalist firm, you're a government.  I want you to fix my roads.  I want you to educate my children.  I want you to fix the infrastructure.  I don't understand why you're spending $750 million on a company that may end up like Solindra.  it went bankrupt after the government poured a bunch of money into it.  I'm not saying every solar company is a bad investment, but that's kinda why you have investors.  They're willing to take the risks.  (Government) is not my investment guy. Invest in the road.  How about that?  There are a lot of pot holes and they can't seem to fix those and I don't know why."

For now Sigler's focus is on meeting with Republican Committee members across the district, learning about key issues beyond Tompkins County, and raising campaign funds.  He says he hopes the Committee members will see him as the best candidate when they vote at the end of this month.  At this stage he doesn't rule out running in a primary if he doesn't win their enforcement, but says it is much preferable to have each local committee behind you.

"It's a thing you want to do because these are the people who are going to work to get your signatures," he says.  "You have to have over a thousand signatures to even get on the ballot.  So you're going to want twice that.  2,000 signatures would be a good cushion.  We're going to see later in the month what the committees think is the best move."

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