Aging Republicans in State Senate: “till the Lord calls you away, I guess.”

There is a very interesting article in today’s New York Times about Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno’s efforts to keep Republicans in power despite the increasing age amongst their ranks. Here’s a brief excerpt (bold mine):

“The Republicans are desperate to hang on to their two-seat majority in the Senate in November. But doing so relies on the staying power of an increasingly older bloc of senators, some with health problems and some with challengers a third their age.

Fifteen of the 32 Republican senators will be at least 65 by November. Seven will be at least 75.

All but one of them have agreed, at the urging of the Senate majority leader, the 78-year-old Joseph L. Bruno, to run for re-election and try to fight off a Democratic effort to gain control in the Senate for the first time in four decades.

There’s more (bold mine)…

“Senator Owen Johnson, a Long Island Republican who is 79, said he would remain in office “till the Lord calls you away, I guess.”

Senator William J. Larkin Jr., a Hudson Valley Republican who is 80, said he had no retirement plans “unless the guy upstairs does.”

Democrats, who have begun an aggressive campaign against several senators, are raising the subject of age, though often gingerly, with suggestions that the silver-haired senators do not represent modern New York. Only two Democratic senators have reached the age of 70.”

Which begs the question: is New York looking at a future run by young Democrats?

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