Orleans leader ready to quit band if he wins election

It's all on the line for Orleans leader John Hall, who's running for the congressional seat from New York's suburban 19th District. Hall survived a crowded primary fight for the Democratic nomination, and he's up against six-term incumbent Sue Kelly, who gained entry to the House Of Representatives in 1994 as part of the Republican takeover led by Newt Gingrich. Hall told us that if the voters in his district choose him today, he's prepared to leave Orleans: "I will hang up the guitar as a professional thing, and I'll still keep it as a recreational, therapeutic tool (chuckles). If I go to Washington as a congressman, I'm gonna have my hands full with the real business at hand, and I'm ready to do that."

This is Hall's first campaign for a Washington position, but he's held elective office before as a member of the Ulster County, New York legislature, and as a two-term member of the Saugerties, New York Board Of Education, where his fellow trustees elected him president.