Assemblyman George Amedore, Jr., R-Rotterdam, who is facing a hard fight in his first re-election campaign, was unusually quiet during a public meeting in which he shared a table with his political opponent.

In fact, Amedore was utterly silent — he did not say one word Monday during a half-hour discussion between the Schenectady City Council, state Sen. Hugh T. Farley, R-Niskayuna, and Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco, R-Schenectady. He did not even introduce himself at the beginning of the session, although he did walk around the room with the other legislators and shake hands with everyone in the audience before the meeting began.

To be fair, his election opponent, Councilman Mark Blanchfield, was also quiet — although that was because the legislators were meeting under the auspices of Councilman Gary McCarthy’s committee, and he did all of the talking for the council.

Among the state legislators, Farley handled most of the discussion, but Tedisco got in plenty of remarks about the severity of the state’s fiscal crisis.

For the chance to sit silently during the conversation, Amedore had to be late to another forum at which he was to hold the stage alone. He was due in Fonda at 6 p.m., but with the council meeting starting at 5:30 p.m., he didn’t have a chance of getting there on time. In fact, they were scheduled to leave City Hall at precisely 6 p.m.

McCarthy excused them at 5:55 p.m. While that didn’t help Amedore, it gave Tedisco and Farley plenty of time — they had to be at the other side of their district for a forum at 6:30 p.m.

“I appreciate that. We can stay within the speed limit,” Farley joked.

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