Okay, real quick.
I have a contact in his office.
We're still compiling a list of volunteers.
Interested in signing up or getting the snail mail address for donations?
debowd01@popmail.med.nyu.edu
We will arrange with supporters out there for housing and transport. Right now, we're taking names. We'll start campaigning in April.
I did all the research on the following info sheet myself. Yeah, grassroots! :)
Info sheet on Tim Bishop (D, NY-1):
Running for second term this fall. Formerly, worked as a college administrator. Two years ago, beat Felix Grucci for the seat. Grucci had the policies of Bush and the tact of Al D'Amato. Grucci has not yet officially withdrawn from the GOP primary, according to the FEC, but there has been no official announcement from the campaign that he will seek to re-take his seat.
NY-1: Extends from east tip of Long Island westward. It is a swing district. Like NY-2 (Steve Israel, D), general trend over last 30 years has been towards blue, but NY-1 is still more volatile. Even now, there are more registered Republicans than Democrats. "Bluest" in its northern third, with pockets of "blue" and "blue-green" near universities and some beach communities. "Purple" and "red-spotted" sectors can lean blue on issues like first responder funding (Fire Departments are volunteer brigades) and workplace issues. "Reddest" regions composed of fiscal conservatives, also mainly in beach communities (sometimes neighboring the blue-green ones!).
Bishop's Committees: Science and Transportation; the Long Island economy rests on three pillars ... Commuting, Academics, and Tourism, in that order. The first and third depend on highways and mass transit. Bishop has been a strong opponent of attempts to move DOT funds away from New York, which uses more mass transit, to states like Texas, that use less. Bishop's only stated opponent, William Manger, a blue-blood East End socialite, recently worked for a brief stint as a senior policy adviser in the "pro-car/anti-mass transit" Bush Dept. of Transportation.
Plum Island (Dept of Homeland Security) and Brookhaven National Labs (Joint Science Facility) are seen as sources of revenue and pride, but also potential disaster areas. Bishop and Clinton have made sure that the executive branch keeps their eye on monitoring safety and security. He has also tried (unsuccessfully) to maintain funding for teaching hospitals on Long Island and New York City through Medicare reimbursement.
Bishop's home projects: Has set up grant writing workshops to help local volunteer first responder branches get grants. Won funding for VA hospital in NY-1, while Bush administration continues to attempt to downsize the VA. Has opposed the implementation of Bush "clean water" policy in the NY area. Has fought against dumping of waste into the LI Sound. Has prevented dumping of dredge waste into the local waterways. Has successfully gotten the Army Corps of Engineers to oversee the restoration of Moriches Inlet. Has fought for the fishing rights of LI fishermen against encroachment. Has set up a youth advisory panel; went to high schools in the district and had the principals appoint students with high academic performance and interest in government to give feedback to Bishop when he is back from DC. William Manger claims Bishop has done "nothing" for NY-1. This reflects more upon the "do-nothing-right" GOP majority and the "do-nothing-sound" President than anything else. Despite this, Bishop has won fights and funding for the Island and its environmental health. He doesn't get useless pork that falls on the backs of the rest of the taxpaying public. He protects LI and the NY area from the predatory practices of Bush crony capitalism and environmental despoilment.
Bishop's Votes/Stands:
Opposed Medicare Privatization
Supported Drug Re-importation from Canada/Bulk Price Negotiation
Opposed VA Hospital Cuts
Supported Higher Health Priority for Poorest Veterans
OpposedAlmost all of Bush Tax Cuts
Supported Child Tax Credit and Marriage Tax Credit
Opposed "Benedict Arnold" CEO Tax Cuts
Supported Higher Health Insurance Tax Credit
Opposed Human Testing of Pesticides (Bishop Amendment)
Supported Right to Know on Sewage Overflows
Supported Greater Tax Credit for Land Conservation Purchases
Opposed "Bush Oil/Coal Subsidy" Energy Bill Bill
Supported Greater Pension Protections
Co-sponsored 50 bills this session with Nadler and 50 bills with Hinchey (some overlap).
Voted for the 87 Billion for Iraq, but only after co-sponsoring bills to take it out of the Bush tax cuts and provide equal funding for U.S. schools and first responders (the GOP defeated both bills)
Believes deficits should be paid down. Tax cuts other than child and marriage credits should be phased out, and the revenue put into first responders, education, health care, and debt reduction.
Supports stricter caps on media ownership
Supports increased funds for experiential education, a higher Pell Grant, student loan consolidation, and increased grants for principal job training.
Supports increasing military spouse survival benefits
Supports equal rights amendment (it's still floating there in Congress), greater funding for breast cancer research, greater funding for post-partum depression research, continued coverage of mammography under Medicare, greater funding for mental health research
Seeks greater protection for union formation and greater limits on nurse overtime
Often thwarted by the GOP, often to the point of absurdity:
Supported first responder funding increases (most GOP did not)
Supported keeping FDR on the dime (this may yet come back)
Supported making stoning a human rights violation (this bill is still in limbo!)
Funding and opponent(s):
Bishop: As of 2/04, Bishop has a 3:2 advantage in cash over William Manger. This could easily change, since Manger can fund a lot more of his campaign from his personal funds and has only been taking donations for two months (not two years, like Bishop). Bishop gets almost half of his money from individuals. The $200+ list at FEC shows all walks of life (who can cough up $200), from doctors to lawyers to bankers to investors to farmers to vintners to educators to secretaries to scientists to small businesspeople to NGO workers, etc. It also includes Mel Brooks, Harold Ickes, and Alan Alda! Another 25% or so comes from Labor PACs, like SEIU, AFSCME, AFT, NEA, and AFLCIO. Approximately 12% or so comes from issue PACs including the Human Rights Campaign, Sierra Club, and Planned Parenthood. Another 10-11% comes from business PACs. He has gotten money from the American Hospitals Association, but he has focused his efforts on patients and veteran care ... the AHA only got its agenda advanced when this overlapped with his focus (reimbursements to NY area teaching hospitals). Same is true for Dentist PAC and Neurosurgeon PAC. He gets money from America Works PAC, which represents small businessmen but donates almost exclusively to Democrats. He also gets money from Democratic Congress PAC and the campaign coffers of Elijiah Cummings, Emmanuel Rahm, Barney Frank, Steve Israel, Jerry Nadler, Nancy Pelosi, Charlie Rangel, and Jan Schakowsky.
Grucci: Not knocked out yet. He still has some debt to pay off. He has also gotten money from the American Hospitals Assoc., as well as the American Physicians PAC (which is pretty RED in its allocations). He has also gotten money from the Right to Work PAC, which looks like the GOP equivalent of the America Works PAC. In addition, he has gotten donations from LI Cabinet Making companies, Building companies, and Realtors. Grucci also has some of his own fireworks company money.
Manger: He has taken out a small loan, which he can easily repay. As far as I can tell, he had no stated profession prior to becoming trustee of Southampton (a nice beach community) in 1997. Some of the family members are NYC Physicians, but most appear to be coupon cutters. Newsday refers to Manger as a "blue-blood East End Socialite"; that's Socialite, not Socialist. I thought he had a small business, but that's because I made the dumb assumption that people need a job or a business to have money. He served at the Bush DOT as a senior policy adviser (on what, I couldn't determine). He geared up for Congress almost right after he left DOT. One can only wonder whether he would have opposed the "anti-mass transit" gas tax allocation, since he worked for the department that devised the policy proposal. Almost all of his money to date seems to come from his socialite connections ... a lot of interior designers, housewives, museum trustees, ad execs, magazine editors, financiers, private investors, self-employed (with no further job description) ... and so on.
He has also begun to receive money from the Rough Riders PAC, which is VERY red in its allocations. Bush 2004, Saxby Chambliss, Grucci two years ago, Sununu, GOP majority fund. Further research on the Rough Riders PAC shows that it is funded mainly by two groups ... Financial Company employees and News Corporation executives (Fox News, y'all). That's a rough ride, all right. Teddy Roosevelt is breaking the light barrier in his grave.
The GOP also has cash in reserve when Manger gets the nomination. If Grucci stays put, and Michael Caracciolo (another conservative Republican) stays out (he hasn't raised any cash), that's going to happen.
Manger says Bishop is too liberal. Maybe he doesn't think we should be so hard on stoning.
Can you help us out today? Then William Manger can take his SUV-subsidizing, Cosmopolitan-drinking, charity-ball fronting, Bush-administration defending, mass-transit hating, coupon-cutting, blue-blooded socialite freak show back to Southampton, where it BELONGS.