Jim Tedisco

James Nicholas Tedisco (born July 15, 1950) is an American politician. He is the Republican New York State Senator from the 49th District, which includes parts of Saratoga, Schenectady and Herkimer Counties and all of Fulton and Hamilton Counties. He served in the Assembly since 1983 and was the Assembly's Minority Leader from November 2005 until April 2009. He was the Republican nominee in a special election for the 20th US Congressional District to fill the seat vacated by Kirsten Gillibrand, following Gillibrand's appointment to the United States Senate. On January 4, 2017 he was officially sworn-in to office to serve as the new State Senator for New York’s 49th State Senate District.

Jim Tedisco graduated from Bishop Gibbons High School in 1968, and then received his B.A. in Psychology from Union College. While at Union, he played varsity basketball for three years where he set 15 scoring and assist records, and left as Union's all-time leading scorer with 1,632 points. Tedisco earned multiple athletic awards during his college career, and was inducted into the Union Athletics Hall of Fame in 2002. In 1997, he was given the Silver Anniversary Award from the NCAA. The award is granted 25 years after graduation, and is based on a combination of academic achievement and being a prominent athlete while in college, and career and professional achievement after graduation.

He went on to get a graduate degree in Special Education from the College of Saint Rose. From 1973 to 1982, Tedisco was a guidance counselor at Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons High School in Schenectady, and was also the varsity basketball coach and athletic director. Later, he was a special education teacher, resource room instructor and varsity basketball coach at Bethlehem Central High School in Delmar, a suburb of Albany.

Tedisco is a resident of Glenville where he lives with his wife Mary, son Andrew, dog Gracie and cats Glinda and Elphaba.

Tedisco entered public service in 1977 when, at the age of 27, he was elected the youngest Schenectady City Councilman at that time. He was re-elected by an overwhelming majority four years later.

Elections

In 1982, Assemblyman Clark Wemple retired from the State Assembly, leaving an opening in the district. Tedisco won a four-way race in Republican primary, and then won the general election. As a freshman legislator, Tedisco was named Ranking Minority Member of the Children and Families Committee.

Due to redistricting, Tedisco represented the 107th District from 1983 to 1993, the 103rd District from 1993 to 2003, the 110th District from 2003 to 2012, and most recently represened the 112th District since from 2012 to 2017. The 112th District consists of portions of Schenectady County and Saratoga County, including the towns of Greenfield, Providence, Milton, Galway, Ballston, Charlton, Clifton Park, Halfmoon, and Glenville.

Tedisco ran uncontested in the 2008 general election and won the 2010 general election with 64 percent of the vote.

In 2010, he won reelection against Bahram Keramati. In 2012 he won reelection against Michele E. Draves, and he won his 15th term in 2014 against Jared B. Hickey scoring his highest margin of victory by 77% of the votes.

Tenure

James Nicholas Tedisco (R,C,I-Glenville) was first elected to the Assembly in 1982 and served as Minority Leader from 2005 to 2009. Throughout his tenure, Tedisco has been a leader and outspoken advocate for reforming state government and the budget process. He has authored numerous bills designed to make government more accountable to the people and bring about an on-time, fiscally responsible budget.

The Associated Press, in a story on effective legislators in state government, noted Tedisco’s success in being able to “break through with ideas that affect New Yorkers.”

In 2014, Tedisco sponsored a constitutional amendment, Proposition 2, to save millions of tax dollars, make the legislature more efficient and stop the wasteful printing of paper that’s placed on legislators’ desk by enabling digital copies of bills to suffice.

Realizing that animal cruelty is a bridge crime and those who abuse animals often go on to hurt people, Tedisco was the driving force behind passage of the landmark Buster’s Law to protect our pets by making animal cruelty a felony. In 2011, Tedisco again made history by creating the first-ever NYS Animal Advocacy Day to give voice to all members of our families.

As the author of the Common Core Parental Refusal Act, Tedisco has been a leader in the opt-out movement to stop the developmentally inappropriate over-testing of children that’s robbing them of their love of learning and teachers of their creativity.

He introduced the Used Resources Accountability Act, which the Governor named NYYSTORE, and now the state is doing what Tedisco proposed: recoup tax dollars by selling state vehicles, furniture and equipment on E-Bay and Craigslist.

As the author of the first property tax cap bill this decade, the Property Taxpayers Protection Act, Tedisco ushered in and helped pass the tax cap to finally put a lid on out of control property tax hikes.

Tedisco introduced “Charlotte’s Law” to permanently terminate driver’s license privileges for serial drunk and dangerous drivers and get them off our roads forever. Tedisco then asked the Governor to implement the essence of his legislation administratively through the DMV via executive authority, which is what Governor Cuomo did.

In 2009, Tedisco successfully rolled-back former Governor Paterson’s plan to force drivers to get unnecessary new DMV license plates.

Committee assignments

Tedisco was chosen as the Ranking Minority Member on the Committee on Children and Families and Chairman of the Assembly Minority Task Force on Missing Children. As Chairman of the Assembly Minority Task Force on Missing Children, Tedisco helped pass non-custodial release legislation to protect children from being abducted. Tedisco led the charge to enact the civil confinement law to keep dangerous sex offenders off our streets. Following years of research, legislation and statewide public hearings on the subject, he authored a book in 1996 entitled, “Missing Children: A psychological approach to understanding the causes and consequences of stranger and non-stranger abduction of children.”

Most recently, he has served on the Assembly Committee on Economic Development, Assembly Committee on Racing and Wagering, Assembly Committee on Banks, and Assembly Committee on Rules.

On January 23, 2009, after Governor David Paterson announced that he had selected Representative Kirsten Gillibrand to fill the United States Senate seat vacated by Hillary Clinton, Tedisco stated his intention to run for Congress to replace Gillibrand in New York's 20th Congressional District. Though not a resident of the district, Tedisco became its Republican nominee on January 27, 2009, and ran against Democrat Scott Murphy. The initial count from the election had Murphy leading by 59 votes, out of over 155,000 cast on March 31, 2009. This tally did not include any of the 10,000 requested absentee ballots, which needed only to have been postmarked by that date and could have been returned as late as April 7 (domestically) or April 13 (internationally). Eventually, about 7,000 absentee ballots were received; the vote count as of April 24 had Murphy ahead by 399 votes. On April 24, Tedisco conceded the election to Murphy.

Elections

In 2016 Senator Hugh Farley retired leaving an opening in the district. After Tedisco handily won the Republican primary he went on to defeat General Election opponent Chad Putman. Tedisco won the election with 69% of the vote on November 8, 2016, becoming the 49th District New York Senator.

Tenure

On January 4, 2017 Jim Tedisco was officially sworn-in to office to serve as the new State Senator for New York’s 49th State Senate District. The 49th Senate District includes parts of Saratoga, Schenectady and Herkimer Counties and all of Fulton and Hamilton Counties.

Tedisco, who has been a fierce and outspoken advocate for his constituents and taxpayers for many years, has a strong track record of not being afraid to stand up to and get in the faces of some of Albany's most powerful leaders when Upstate's quality of life has been threatened. He succeeds former Senator Hugh Farley who stepped down last year after 40 years of distinguished service to New York State.

Senator Tedisco has shown a tremendous ability to work across party lines in a bi-partisan, non-partisan fashion to achieve positive results for New Yorkers. He was an original author of the Tax Cap and helped get that passed and was the driving force behind passage of the landmark Buster's Law making animal cruelty against pets a felony because animal abuse is a bridge crime and those who harm pets often go on to hurt people. In 2014, Tedisco sponsored, promoted and helped pass with 77% of the vote statewide Proposition 2, a constitutional amendment to save millions of tax dollars by stopping the wasteful printing of paper copies of legislation and allow digital copies to suffice on legislators' desks at the Capitol.

“While my job title has changed and I now have a much bigger district to represent, I’m still going to be the same Jim Tedisco -- as outspoken and independent a fighter for my constituents as ever. I will work hard each and every day to not let people down and continue to be a strong voice for the people of the 49th State Senate District who have given me the honor to be their state Senator,” said Tedisco.

Tedisco is active in many civic organizations. He is a member of the Sons of Italy, Schenectady Lodge 321; Principessa Elena Society in Saratoga Springs; Ballston Spa Elks Lodge No. 2619; Schenectady Moose Lodge; Schenectady Rotary Club; Union College Alumni Association; Friends of the Schenectady Museum; the Center for HOPE in Ballston Spa; and serves as Honorary Chairman of the Vascular Birthmarks Foundation.

In addition to receiving numerous community and civic awards and honors, including being named the NCAA Silver Anniversary Award winner, and National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) 25th Anniversary Award, Tedisco was elected in 2002 as one of the first members of the Union College Athletic Hall of Fame.