PITTSFIELD, Mass. — State Rep. Paul Mark will not run for the open state Senate seat being left vacant by Benjamin B. Downing.

 

The Peru Democrat has spent the last several weeks considering whether he should take on the sprawling Senate district. On Thursday, he said he didn't want to lose the traction he has gained in the House nor did his family think it was the right position.

 

"There was an overwhelming outpouring of support from people asking me to run ... But, the person I need the most didn't think it was the right race at the right time," Mark said Thursday morning. 

 

He is in his third term representing the 16 towns of the 2nd Berkshire District in the House, and is seeking re-election for a fourth. He was in the unique position, because of redistricting, of being able to boast of having represented 24 of the  52 towns in the Senate district.

 

However, he has also gained a leadership role in the House with the appointment to the Rules Committee. Mark didn't want to start over as a freshman senator.

 

"In the end, you are still a freshman senator rather than a fourth-term representative," Mark said. "I don't need to start over."

 

There are also five towns in his House district now that are outside of the Senate district, particularly Greenfield. He said he's been able to make progress on an array of issues for those towns, which led the Greenfield Recorder to editorialize urging him to stay.

 

"It's tough to leave something once you've hit midstride," Mark said.

 

After Downing announced he would not seek re-election after a decade in the Senate, Mark was quick to say he did not intend to run. However, after Reps. Tricia Farley-Bouvier and William "Smitty" Pignatelli, dean of the delegation, both considered then dropped the idea of running, public support for Mark to campaign swelled. He said he had to consider it when so many people he didn't know emailed him or publicly supported him.

 

"It wasn't a position I ever had my eye on. I don't do this to climb from job to job up a ladder," Mark said. 

 

He said he considered what was best for his family, the people in the region and, ultimately, where he'd get the most work accomplished. He believes there is still more work to be done in the House with the opioid scourge and higher education. 

 

"I think for me, one of the questions was where can I have the greatest impact, the soonest," Mark said.

 

With none of the Berkshire delegation running (Rep. Gailanne Cariddi is also running for re-election to the House), the Senate race is wide open.

 

Adam Hinds of Pittsfield, executive director of the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition, is the first to announce for the Senate race. He is running as a Democrat. Interested candidates have until May 3 to submit nomination papers.

 

Downing has been in the Senate for the last decade. The district covers a large swath of territory including all of the Berkshires and spans into neighboring towns in Franklin, Hampshire and Hampden counties.