Bruno: It Was Personal
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- June
- 24
A choked-up Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno said Tuesday that his decision to step down as Republican leader was personal and had nothing to do with his legal troubles or his health.
Bruno, 79, also didn’t rule out the possibility of retiring as a senator from the Capital region before his term expires at year’s end. He is resigning as majority leader, though, and senators were prepared to vote later today to name Sen. Dean Skelos, R-Nassau County, as Bruno’s successor.
“Life decisions are never easy, and I’ve made a life decision,†Bruno said. “My life decision is step back and step out in an orderly way.â€
Bruno, majority leader since 1995, got choked up near the end of his morning news conference, saying “It’s bittersweet. It’s sad, and it’s happy. And it’s tough.â€
Then he left the podium, only to return moments later to take questions from reporters. Bruno said his decision wasn’t based on any health problems or an ongoing FBI probe into his outside business dealings. He said he contemplated retirement in 2006, but stayed on to maintain the GOP majority.
“It’s time for me in my personal life to step back and just really enjoy my family,” he said. “I’m satisfied we have done what we can do.”
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on Tuesday, June 24th, 2008 at 12:08 pm by Joseph Spector.
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Glad to see that he finally got around to the obligatory family reference.
If an FBI investigation ain’t personal, especially when it’s focused on you, I don’t know what is.