Starting Wednesday, he won’t need to make that trip again.

“One of the things I disliked the most was the drive to Albany – typically five and a half hours,” Goodell said in a phone interview on one of his last days in office.

Over the last seven years Goodell has served as the Floor Leader for the minority party. It was a seven-day a week position.

He would generally review bills on Friday night and Saturday, sometimes finishing up as late as Sunday morning. Sunday afternoon he would leave for Albany arriving around 8 or 9 p.m. so he could be ready by Monday morning, ready to debate the bills.

After 14 years of serving in the Assembly, Andy Goodell will not miss the ride to Albany.

He would then stay in Albany until Wednesday when he would drive back that night. “I’d work Thursday and Friday in my office and then start the routine again Friday night,” Goodell said.

Before he was the Floor leader Goodell said he generally worked five to six days a week.

Still, Goodell has enjoyed his time with the state Assembly.

Goodell had been county executive for eight years from 1990 to 1997. Before running for that office he had served as the county attorney. The late Jack Glenzer talked to him about running and Goodell decided to do it.

But after losing, following two terms as the county executive, Goodell went back into private practice as an attorney.

He could have stayed comfortably in private practice and avoided the long trips to Albany, but instead, in 2010 he re-entered the political arena seeking the seat that at that time was held by Bill Parment.

Parment ended up retiring that year and Goodell ran against Nancy Bargar.

Goodell said he decided to run that year because he didn’t like the decisions that were being made in Albany. “I was frustrated with the direction the state was going. My predecessor, for example, had voted for driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants, which I didn’t think was a good idea. He also supported a farm labor bill which imposed really crippling overtime requirements on all of our local farmers. I just thought it was time for a change,” he said.

He noted that one of the topics that came up both when he was county executive as well as an Assembly member, is the need for comprehensive welfare reform. “New York state spends billions of dollars in a system that traps people in welfare,” he said.

Goodell has proposed a Fiscal Task Force to make it smoother for people to switch from welfare to self-sufficiency and has asked state Assemblyman Elect Andrew Molitor to continue to carry that legislation forward. He believes that would make a huge difference in both the lives of those on welfare as well as the state budget.

He gave a few examples of some of the challenges welfare creates.

He notes that people who are on welfare continue to get increases when they have children and their payments decrease when they get employment.

The same is true with the Home Energy Assistance Program and the Earned Income Tax Credit.

Goodell noted that HEAP payments to families actually go up when people miss a payment and receive a shutoff notice. He has introduced legislation that those who get HEAP payments must go on balanced billing to ensure they don’t miss payments.

With the Earned Income Tax Credit, Goodell has proposed the payments be made over 12 months, instead of a large payment with a tax refund.

While neither has passed, he still believes it has a chance in the future. “I’m hopeful at some point in time, my Democrat colleagues will think it was their idea and we can pass it,”he said with a laugh.

Goodell noted that both he and state Sen. George Borrello created a New York reopening plan following the COVID-19 pandemic. “We sent it to the governor’s office on a Thursday, and the following Tuesday, he announced it publicly on national TV. He not only used our strategy, he actually used some of our slides and our pictures,” he said.

During Goodell’s tenure he was able to see funding brought to Jamestown for the construction of the National Comedy Center as well as the funding to construct the former Athenex Plant in Dunkirk.

While the Athenex Plant has been sold and still has limited activity there, Goodell believes eventually there will be a number of jobs offered through that plant. “There’s no way a brand new, empty building is going to sit there forever,” he said.

Wednesday, Molitor officially takes over as the Assemblyman of the 150th District, which includes all of Chautauqua County and portions of the Seneca Nation of Indians Reservation.

Like Goodell, Molitor is a Republican and will be serving in the minority.

With New York City having so many registered Democrats, Goodell doesn’t see the Republican Party taking control of the Assembly any time soon.

However, he could see an elected Republican governor in the not-too-distant future. “I would not be surprised if we have a Republican governor in the next election cycle, or maybe, you know, within the next couple election cycles. And the reason for that is that my Democrat colleagues in the majority went too far, too fast, to the left with the sanctuary state, the energy policy or lack thereof, the bail, the criminal justice stuff. Now you’re getting a backlash, and my Democrat colleagues are slowly backtracking,” he said.

He said over the years he’s learned to work with his Democratic colleagues and believes Molitor will do the same. He also believes Molitor will be in a good place with Borrello continuing with the state Senate.

With his time in Albany completed, Goodell said he will continue to work as an attorney, doing things like wills and real estate transactions.

He also will enjoy spending time with his four children and seven grandchildren. “Grandchildren are a lot of fun. You can spoil them and then give them back to their parents,” he said with a laugh.

Although he has no plans to winter in Florida, Goodell could see himself vacationing a little bit more. “My wife is telling me that it’s time that we do a little bit of traveling. And I think as soon as I finish one trip, she’s already planning the next one, but you know, we’ll see how that goes,” he said.

In closing, Goodell said he is thankful for the opportunity to serve as an elected official. “It’s been a tremendous opportunity of a lifetime for me to be able to represent Chautauqua County in Albany. And of course, I’m deeply thankful that the residents here gave me that opportunity,” he said.