Mary Lou Rath

In January 2007, she was appointed to the post of deputy majority leader for state/federal relations, making her the only woman in the Senate Republican leadership. She announced her retirement in 2008 and was succeeded by Erie County Legislator Michael Ranzenhofer. Ranzenhofer had also succeeded Senator Rath as Minority Leader of the Erie County Legislature when Senator Rath stepped down to become a state senator.

In 1998, she was reportedly considered by Governor George Pataki as his running mate for lieutenant governor. Pataki choose Judge Mary Donohue instead.

She was elected to the Senate in 1993 after serving as a member of the Erie County Legislature from 1978 to 1993. During her final four years in the County Legislature, she served as the Minority Leader of the Legislature.

Rath married her late husband, Edward Rath, Jr. (1930-2003), on January 10, 1959 in Buffalo, New York. Edward Rath, Jr. was a justice of the New York State Supreme Court and her father-in-law, Edward A. Rath, was the first county executive of Erie County. Her son, Edward Rath III, won his election for the Erie County Legislature for her former seat and in 2020 was elected in her seat for New York State Senate. She is a resident of the Village of Williamsville, and has two other children, Allison and Melinda.

Mary Lou Rath (née Schmitt) (born June 17, 1934) is an American politician who served as a member of New York State Senate from 1993 to 2008. A Republican, she represented the state's 61st district, which consisted of parts of Erie County and all of Genesee County.