To the Editor:

I would like to let the voters of Albany County’s 32nd Legislative District know that I am suspending my campaign for re-election to the Albany County Legislature.   

I want to thank my wife, Ellen, who supported me 100 percent during two election campaigns and during my four-year term as a legislator.  

I want to thank all the people who voted for me in the primary and all my friends and family who helped me circulate petitions this past winter and helped with my re-election campaign. Three people who were particularly helpful were Grant Harders, Frank Commisso, and Carol Waterman.   

I have one piece of unfinished business that I hope to have enacted into law in the final three months of my term. That is Local law E, which I am the lead sponsor of. This bill is to ban the sale of flavored tobacco and vape products in Albany County.  

I am proud of the three anti-tobacco bills to help protect the health of Albany County residents that I was the lead sponsor of that were passed and enacted into law during my four-year term with the help of Carol Waterman who partnered with me to develop these bills and get them passed.

These laws are:

— One that increased to 21 the age to purchase tobacco in Albany County;

— The second is a law that banned smoking in county parks and the rail trail; and

— The third banned the sale of tobacco and vape products in pharmacies and stores containing pharmacies in Albany County.

One regret I have is that we were unable to enact a law to require fire sprinklers in new single-family and town houses in the county.   

Paul Miller

Guilderland

Editor’s note: See related story.