By CRAIG FREILICH

A number of Albany observers and legislators say Sen. Patty Ritchie had a remarkably successful first year representing the North Country’s 48th District.

“Your professionalism suggests you’ve been here a long, long time, senator. You’re doing extraordinarily well,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo told Ritchie in a meeting earlier this year.

“You can see that in the number of local bills she has sponsored and that have been passed,” said Scott Reis, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Den Skelos, at the end of this year’s Senate meeting. “She’s had a tremendously successful session. She’s worked very hard. She hit the ground running. She is a strong advocate for the North Country,” Reis said.

Ritchie submitted 45 bills in the session, 26 of which have passed the Senate. Of those, 13 have made it through the Assembly and have been signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Some were the routine “hometown” bills any legislator would sponsor, such as those recognizing a couple’s 60th anniversary, a Boy Scout’s achieving Eagle Scout status, and congratulating Waddington on doing so well in an online “Ultimate Fishing Town” contest.

But there were other bills, such as one for businesses repealing a requirement for grocery stores to install multiple scales for customers to verify package weights; for sportsmen and women, allowing registration of the newer side-by-side four-wheelers as ATVs; and for military personnel, granting to reservists the same property tax exemptions that active duty military members get.

“She is a tireless advocate for the North Country, and has secured passage of many local bills this session,” said Senate Leader Skelos, a Republican senator from the 4th District, part of southern Nassau County on Long Island. “As chair of the Senate’s Agriculture Committee, she has also proven to be a strong voice for farmers.”

Appointed to Eight Committees

Her appointment to eight committees, including as chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, “allowed me to see first-hand some of the things that needed to be done,” said Ritchie, the former St. Lawrence County Clerk elected to the Senate just about one year ago.

Among her most important goals, she said, was doing her part to try to restore some faith in state government.

She spoke with thousands of people during her campaign in the western portion of St. Lawrence County, including Ogdensburg, Canton, Gouverneur, and her native Heuvelton, and into Jefferson and Lewis counties at the south end of her district.

“A lot of the people I talked to said they had lost faith in state government – the idea that it was dysfunctional.

“I give a lot of credit to the governor, leading the charge to pass a budget on time – the first time in 15 years – and cutting spending with no new taxes. That’s going in the right direction.”

She said the way Democrats and Republicans worked together during the session reinforces her belief that “we can get a lot more done when we work together.”

But it hasn’t been perfectly satisfactory to Ritchie. There have been a couple of serious disappointments.

One of them was Article X of the Public Service Law, which “at the 11th hour came back to be passed, and they took away local control” of choosing sites for new energy stations, putting that authority in the state’s hands.

“I couldn’t support the final bill. That was a concern.”

The other was “when we passed the property tax cap, we said it needed to be coupled with mandate relief.”

She said the Senate tagged 122 items of mandate relief they thought should be considered, “but when it came back from the Assembly, they only had something like nine left. This is a burden on municipalities and school districts. I hope it will be front and center when we get back” into session in January.

‘Accidental Politician’

She said “it was a tough decision, with the success I was having as clerk,” to run for the Senate against incumbent Democrat Darrel Aubertine last year.

“I’m really a kind of accidental politician,” Ritchie said. “I got involved because I like helping people. That’s been the best part of the job. It’s made it all worthwhile.

“I had not been thinking about it. But I got a few phone calls locally, and Sen. Skelos asked me to consider it.”

No doubt Skelos was impressed with the way she had increased county revenue by getting downstaters to register their vehicles through St. Lawrence County, and her leadership in the opposition to then-Gov. Paterson’s administration’s attempt to force new license plates on drivers – for a fee -- whether their old ones needed replacing or not.

“I enjoyed being clerk. I’m glad my deputy (Mary Lou Rupp) was elected,” said Ritchie.

The toughest part of all this is “being away from home for part of each week, away from family.”

“I certainly enjoy what I’m doing. I plan to run again. I’m going to keep working hard. I hope the voters continue to support me and send me back to Albany.”

Whether or not all her energy is worthwhile in a representative, voters will decide next November when Ritchie runs to keep the seat, as she says she will. But if the St. Lawrence County Clerk’s race this year is any indication – the candidate she endorsed, her former deputy, won easily – she will have broad support in her home county.