Former Staten Island GOP Assemblyman Matthew Mirones has announced that he will not be a candidate for Congress.

“I’ve decided on a personal level not to get back into the political arena at this time,” said Mirones, who represented the East Shore and part of Brooklyn in the Legislature from 2002 until 2006.

He retired from the Assembly in part because of the travel back and forth to Albany, and said today “Washington is that much further.”

“It boiled down to a personal decision for me,” Mirones said.

The borough GOP is scrambling for a candidate after the sudden death of congressional designee Frank Powers on Sunday.

Mirones said that he has also been spending time helping to care for his 84-year-old mother, and has also become involved in some philanthropic efforts, some of which are overseas. He said he’d taken a sabbatical from the ARIMED prosthetics firm that he used to help operate.

Mirones said it was “very heartwarming” to hear that a number of Staten Island rank-and-file Republicans wanted to see him run and would have worked on his behalf.

Mirones’ departure leaves attorney and broadcaster Lisa Giovinazzo as the top candidate for the borough GOP’s endorsement.

Source: SI Advance