With Maurice Hinchey announcing his retirement from Congress, new candidates are eyeing the 22nd district, including someone new to the political scene. Tamara Lindstrom has more on the latest candidate to announce the intention to run.

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ITHACA, N.Y. -- The race is on to fill the Congressional seat left vacant when Representative Maurice Hinchey announced he won't run again. And Ithaca Democrat Leslie Danks Burke is throwing her hat in the ring, wherever that may be.

"There's redistricting going on in New York, so we'll have to find out where we land, but my intention is to run regardless of where that is," Danks Burke said.

A lawyer and self-described community activist, the candidate says her biggest concern is the economy.

"That we retain jobs, that we grow jobs. That we retain high tech jobs. We have a great tourism industry here, we have a burgeoning agricultural industry and we need to make sure that we aren't doing things that are going to ruin the wonderful industries that we've already built," Burke said.

She says her focus is on long-term solutions.

"For example, we're looking at bringing hydrofracking industries in to do natural gas drilling. And I'm curious about whether that's actually a long term solution that's going to solve our economic problems," Burke said.

Born and raised in Colorado, Danks Burke moved with her family from New York City eight years ago.

"We fell in love with Ithaca," she said. "We are raising our children here. We have two daughters and we can't imagine living anywhere else."

The candidate says the community has already shown support for her run, donating $100,000 to her campaign in the first week.

Danks Burke is hoping to win the backing of the Democratic Party in the primaries June 26th.