State Assembly race

Nojay to challenge Burke in the 133rd state Assembly district

James Alesi’s announcement that he will not run for state senate next year has started a game of musical chairs in the 133rd state Assembly district — pitting a former Avon mayor against a popular conservative radio talk show host.

Last month, former Avon mayor and town Republican party chairman Richard Burke announced he would be running for assembly in a district which, under redistricting, now includes all of Livingston County, plus towns in northern Steuben County and southern Monroe County.

Assemblyman Sean Hanna, representing the current 130th district, would have had to run in the new district — but he announced today that he will run for Alesi’s vacant senate seat instead. Hanna is a Mendon resident who served as director of the Region 8 Department of Environmental Conservation headquarters in East Avon from 2003 to 2010.

Hanna’s exit from the Assembly race has encouraged Bill Nojay to announce his run for the 133rd District.

Nojay, 55, of Pittsford is a former board chairman of the Rochester Genesee Regional Transportation Authority and was recently tapped as Chief Operating Officer of the Detroit, Mich. transportation system. His radio program is heard on eight stations in the Finger Lakes and Southern Tier — including WYSL in Avon and WLEA in Hornell.

Nojay will be launching his campaign tomorrow at events in Monroe County and Hornell. He told the blog Albany Watch today that he will be focused on economic pressures that are driving businesses away from Upstate New York.

Alesi, who has served in the state senate since 1996, is declining re-election after his support of New York’s same-sex marriage law cost him the support of the Conservative Party — and also a 2011 lawsuit following allegations that he trespassed on a couple’s property in his district.