Dec 18, 2020 —
On Monday, State Senator Betty Little hopped into an old Army jeep driven by her grandson for an escorted ride around Glens Falls. The city’s mayor had declared it “Betty Little Day” to celebrate her retirement from elected politics.
On Monday, State Senator Betty Little hopped into an old Army jeep driven by her grandson for an escorted ride around Glens Falls. The city’s mayor had declared it “Betty Little Day” to celebrate her retirement from elected politics. Photo: Sen. Little's office
"All the people were out there, the Kiwanis Club was out, the Rotary Club," Little recalled, "and at the circle in Glens Falls, all the people from the hospital were there. The surgeon I just had for breast cancer was out there with a sign, waving. It was overwhelming."
Over more than 30 years in politics — almost twnety of them in the State Senate — the Republican from Queensbury became perhaps the North Country’s most influential figure of her time in Albany.
Little will remain active in public life, serving on the Olympic Regional Development Authority board and working with the group planning the 2023 World University Games in Lake Placid.
Her political career began after she spent 19 years raising a family.
She spoke with David Sommerstein about her political career. A transcript below of their conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity. You can listen to her unedited interview here:
SEN. BETTY LITTLE: It's great to be a stay-at-home mom, but you don't get a lot of value out of laundry and cleaning and ironing and packing lunches and all that. Yet there's tremendous value in being home with your kids; I don't mean it in any other way. But you start looking for some money in your pocket, and it showed me I did something that had a monetary value.
DAVID SOMMERSTEIN: Why did you think of politics rather than opening a business or doing something else?
SEN. LITTLE: I was always interested in what was going on. I was reading the paper. I took history classes. The mayor of Glens Falls was one of my professors.
And you always have this little voice in the back of your head that says, 'why did they do it that way? I think they ought to look at doing it some other way.' I always had an opinion.
NY State Sen. Betty Little. File photo: Mark Kurtz
SOMMERSTEIN: When you became a Senator, you had to fill these huge shoes of [former State Senator] Ron Stafford, who had been a senator and a giant figure for so long. How did that feel to you at the time? And I should also add, this was at a time when male lawmakers were still dominating the landscape. What was it like for a woman to be stepping into that role?
SEN. LITTLE: Yeah, it was different, that's for sure. I know when I started to run for the Assembly, one person called her county chair, one of the chairmen, I don't know which one it was, to tell him that I shouldn't be leaving home because I had a 15-year-old son, and we were divorced and the father had left.
And then I called him and I said, 'you know, that question would never be asked of a man or even thought of a man.'
It was difficult because I think that at that time, and I think it's improved, women didn't have the confidence. I know I didn't. The men acted like they knew everything.
I can remember when I first was down at the Assembly, my daughter came. She was in college at Plattsburgh, and she came down, and we're walking around and she asked me something and I said, 'I don't know what I'm doing and where I'm going.' And she said, /'Mom, stop saying that. Someone's going to hear you.'
You have to make sure, and I tell women this, don't try to act like a man, but know your subject and know your topic.
SOMMERSTEIN: It's impossible to summarize 20 years of lawmaking in the Senate alone. But what's something that you're most proud of legislatively?
Gov. Cuomo with State Senator Betty Little in Saranac Lake in February 2020. File photo: Brian Mann
SEN. LITTLE: I've done a lot of stuff that I even started when I was in the Assembly on invasive species and [Eurasian watermilfoil]. Even when I was on the county board, that was an issue in Lake George. And they thought that the lake was going to fill up with milfoil and it was going to lose all its recreational ability. Fortunately, that never happened, but we really had to work hard because in a lot of lakes, it was spreading.
And so I worked on that and with legislation, we got money and I had a bill that proposed money for municipalities and lake associations.
It's a big issue because we're a tourism area. No one's going to come to an area if you can't use the lakes, the beautiful, beautiful lakes that we have for swimming, boating, and recreation.
SOMMERSTEIN: There's been a lot of tough news and bad news this year as you retire. What are you hopeful about?
SEN. LITTLE: All of the virtual stuff in the online and all this kind of stuff, I think that's our opportunity to increase our year-round population, and that is what we need the most, because the sustainability of communities is something I have talked about since day one.
We've already seen grocery stores and gas stations leave our small communities. Health care is going to be awful. You look at Long Lake and how health care can survive there in the wintertime.
So we need more year-round residents being able to go online and work online remotely. And so we need Internet service. We need it to be affordable. We need it to be subsidized. That's a big thing and that will help us grow.
Sen. Betty Little as she toured the city of Glens Falls last Monday. Little is retiring after more than three decades in politics. Photo: Sen. Little's office
SOMMERSTEIN: You've been one of the more bipartisan lawmakers over the years. You have had a good relationship with Governor Cuomo through his tenure and other Democrats. At this time where, especially on the national level but you also see it in state government, a very real polarization between Republicans and Democrats. What advice do you have for people in politics right now?
SEN. LITTLE: Well, I've always thought that when I was elected, I was elected to represent my constituency, which was six counties really. But you represent everybody that's there.
SOMMERSTEIN: What do you think of that polarization? Is there a place for moderate lawmakers like yourself?
SEN. LITTLE: I wish more people were like that and felt that way. It's definitely gotten worse. People start talking like 'people are Republicans or Democrats.' No, there are people.
The Link LonkDecember 18, 2020 at 12:00PM
https://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/42889/20201218/sen-betty-little-reflects-on-three-decades-in-north-country-politics
Sen. Betty Little reflects on three decades in North Country politics - North Country Public Radio
https://news.google.com/search?q=little&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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