Speculation in Albany has grown that Rep. John McHugh (R-Watertown) will leave his congressional seat this year and instead challenge State Sen. Darrel Aubertine (D-Watertown).

Bipartisan sources have confirmed that the eight term congressman’s name is rising to the top of the list to challenge Aubertine, who won the Senate seat in a special election last month. McHugh held this Senate seat for eight years before going to Congress in 1992.

McHugh’s high name recognition, and the large Republican make-up in the district, would immediately vault a race between him and Aubertine to the top of most competitive Senate races in a year when Democrats are two seats from claiming the majority for the first time since 1965. McHugh, who has been the subject of retirement rumors for several years, is said to be tired of the Washington commute.

“Right now, in Congress, you are away for 10 months out the year,” a Democratic Senate insider said. “Here, it is three days a week for six months.”

Redistricting after the 2010 census could also swing McHugh into a Senate race. With New York on track to lose one or two congressional seats, the consensus is that the seats will come from upstate. Democrats have indicated that if the party controls all parts of the redistricting process, two Republican seats will be targeted for elimination. One scenario has Democratic districts in the Albany, Utica, Syracuse and Rochester areas being drawn to split of McHugh’s North Country district, without sacrificing the Democratic overlays.

Concern over 2012 redistricting is already starting to show its head in Republican congressional recruitment efforts. State Sen. George Maziarz (R-Niagara County) is said to have factored this into his decision to not seek an open House seat in Western New York and sources said it has complicated efforts to find a challenger to Rep. Mike Arcuri (D-Oneida).

McHugh’s campaign spokesman said his boss was planning to seek another term this year and was unsure where speculation about a State Senate race would have come from. He said McHugh has not given indication of any worry over the redistricting process.

“Having served in the New York State Senate, he has the utmost respect for that body,” McHugh spokesman John Sweeney said. “He has the fullest intention of running for re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives again.”

Sweeney noted that McHugh, a former chairman of the Postal Affairs Subcommittee, has informed his Republican colleagues of his interest in becoming the top Republican, whether as chair or ranking member, on the House Armed Services Committee, where he has served since arriving in Washington.

Assembly Members Will Barclay (R-Oswego), who lost the special election, and Dede Scozzafava (R-St. Lawrence) had topped the list of Aubertine challengers for November, but McHugh is seen by some as having a better chance of ousting the senator. Republicans have said that Barclay already had his shot at the Senate seat, while Scozzafava may be hurt by her Assembly voting record, which includes supporting gay marriage and the Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act (SONDA). Albany sources have said that Scozzafava will not seek the Senate given her close friendship with Aubertine and not wanting to risk her Assembly seat.

Scozzfava said she is still considering the race and plans to make an announcement in the next several weeks. She said that she will not let opinion of her past votes play a role in her decision making. She said she has a good working relationship with Aubertine, but that this would not factor into her decision-making process.

While leaving Congress to serve in a state legislature was common in the early days of the Republic, when the state governments were considered more powerful than the federal government, the practice is essentially unheard of in modern times. The last member of the House or Senate to leave for a state legislature was U.S. Sen. Gordon Humphrey (R-NH) who declined to seek a third term in 1990 to successfully run for the State Senate.

The last former member of Congress to serve in the State Senate was Alton Waldon, who spent the 1990s in the Senate, following his six months in Congress in 1986. Several former members of Congress serve in state legislatures nationally, but they won those seats after leaving Congress.