Does Brian Kolb truly expect us to believe he is now seeking re-election to the state Assembly because his party's leaders asked him to reconsider his decision to run for Congress?

If that were the case, it still does not adequately justify Kolb's move last week.

Just days before a joint meeting of several county Republican committees, including Cayuga's, Kolb announced he was running for the 129th Assembly District. The next day the committee meeting was canceled, party chairs were scrambling to figure out what to do next and the candidates who had already announced their campaigns for the seat were more than a little perturbed.

They had every right to be mad.

Kolb went back on his word, especially to the candidates who waited for him to make a decision last month to run for Congress before they jumped into the Assembly race.

He insists otherwise, but part of Kolb's change of heart had to have been influenced by his lack of success in the congressional run.

By just about all accounts, the party was not interested in sending him to Washington to replace the retiring Amo Houghton. Kolb should have figured that out before he made the decision to halt his career in Albany.

If you believe Kolb's explanation that the urging of Gov. George Pataki and Assembly minority leader Charles Nesbitt led to last week's move, it is still a troubling scenario. Shouldn't those kinds of conversations have happened before Kolb's first announcement that he was running for Congress?

It is far too early in this campaign for deciding who would do the best job in Albany. There are several candidates, and we need to hear much more from all of them about what they can do for our area.

So we're not at a point where we can urge voters to replace Kolb, but he now has some work to do to prove he's not just a political opportunist.