BY JIMMY LAWTON
North Country This Week

WADDINGTON – Former Lisbon Town Board member Susan Duffy will run for the New York State Assembly’s 116th District.

Duffy is a businesswoman who owns and operates Queenaire Technologies in Lisbon.

She served on the town board there for seven years and was the first woman to ever serve on that council. She resigned the seat after purchasing a new home in Waddington.

Duffy, a Republican, said she decided to run because the area needs a strong candidate who is willing to work for the people of the district and she believes she can do the job.

Duffy says she’ll bring a strong conservative voice to Albany but also believes she can work across the aisle by focusing on issues that can be agreed upon rather than spending the majority of time fighting over things that can’t. She says she’s not a politician, but is a self-made businesswoman, mother and grandmother who believes that elected representatives work for the people. She says she knows the struggles faced by single mothers and what it feels like to worry about filling the gas tank.

Duffy said she has worked hard to get where she is today and plans to bring that work ethic to the state government. Above all she says that if she’s elected she’ll be working for her constituents and not the other way around.

“I think sometimes politicians forget that,” she said.

Duffy says she wants her constituents to have a voice in the work she does.

“I’m not going to support something that’s not supported by the majority of my constituents,” she said,

Duffy, an Ogdensburg Free Academy Graduate, is the first candidate to announce her run for Assembly. She said one of her biggest motivations for running are her grandchildren. She says she wants to ensure they grow up in a strong, healthy community.

The 116th Assembly seat is currently held by Mark Waclzyk who announced he would be running for the 50th Senate District.

Duffy says she'll be picking up petitions on Monday and is gearing up to get out and meet with her constituents.