Mr. Glynn's two-year term as State Comptroller expired in December, 1908 when he resumed his editorship of the Times-Union to which he devoted himself for the next four years. In 1912 the Democratic state convention at Syracuse nominated him for Lieutenant-Governor on the ticket headed by William Sulzer, then a representative in Congress from New York city. Mr. Glynn's friends had urged him as the most available and best equipped candidate for Governor, Thomas Mott Osborne, of Auburn, delivering the nominating speech. But Representative Sulzer had the support of the New York city organization and finally won a majority of the delegates.
It was the year of the Progressive revolt in the Republican party when Theodore Roosevelt was a candidate for President. Oscar Straus was the nominee for Governor on the same ticket. The Democrats won the election in both state and nation. As Lieutenant-Governor Mr. Glynn presided over the State Senate of 1913. Governor Sulzer was impeached by the Assembly in August of that year whereupon the Lieutenant-Governor became acting Governor. On the morning of October 17, after trial by the high court of impeachment, Chief Judge Cullen, as presiding judge, announced the removal of William Sulzer from the governorship. During the afternoon of the same day Martin H. Glynn took the oath of office as Governor.
As the extraordinary session of the Legislature was still in existence it was reconvened by the Governor, December 8. His first message to the Legislature, recommended legislation on primary and general elections; in relation to the direct election of United States Senators; in regard to workmen's compensation for injuries or death and relating to a constitutional convention in 1915.