Maury Thompson reports for the Post Star about the election this fall between Democrat Andrea Smyth and Republican Jake Ashby for the 43rd state Senate district that will soon includes Rensselaer County and portions of Washington and Albany counties. Ashby is a a two-term Assembly incumbent and the paper says Smyth is "a policy analyst and advocate on state government issues for about 30 years." Smyth has a very specific proposal to rein in health care in New York as insurance companies barely give hospitals and health care providers enough to maintain adequate staff. Ashby said Smyth’s proposal merits consideration, and agreed health care costs are a large issue in the state. “I think we need to do a better job of recruiting (providers) … and recruiting them to stay in New York,” he said. Both candidates live in Rensselaer County and Ashby was a U.S. Army Reserve captain who served two combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, then was a Rensselaer County legislator before serving in the state Assembly. Smyth will retire from her current job as chief executive officer for the New York State Coalition for Children’s Behavioral Health on July 1. She narrowly lost the Rensselaer County executive election to Republican Steve McLaughlin in 2017. Read more about this story in the Post Star.