Shrewd Congressman's first article on the state of Albany (5)
I believe the answer is:
canny
'shrewd' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'congressman's first article on the state of albany' is the wordplay.
'first' says to take the initial letters.
'article' becomes 'an' (indefinite article).
'on' says to put letters next to each other.
'the state of albany' becomes 'ny' (state where Albany located).
The first letter of 'congressman' is 'c'.
'c'+'an'+'ny'='CANNY'
(Other definitions for canny that I've seen before include "Worldly-wise" , "Shrewd, clever" , "Shrewd, knowing" , "Shrewd like Scotsman" , "Fly" .)