Rep. Tim Bishop (D) Elected 2002, 2d term
Born:	June 1, 1950, Southampton
Home:	Southampton
Education:	Holy Cross Col., A.B. 1972; Long Island U., M.P.A. 1981
Religion:	Catholic
Marital Status:	married (Kathy)
Professional Career:	Admin., Southampton College, 1973-2002.
DC Office	1133 LHOB20515, 202-225-3826; Fax: 202-225-3143; Web site: www.house.gov/timbishop/
State Offices	Coram, 631-696-6500; Southampton, 631-259-8450.
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Long Island--"the Island" to most New Yorkers--is America's largest, most populous and in some ways most troubled island. Long Island stretches 103 miles, from the two-century-old Montauk Point lighthouse at its eastern extremity to Fort Hamilton at the foot of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. Between 12 and 20 miles wide, Long Island is ringed by gentle hills and cliffs above Long Island Sound and sandspit beaches that front the Atlantic Ocean. Including Brooklyn and Queens, some 7.5 million people live on Long Island, more than in all but 11 states. Brooklyn, at the western end of the island, is urban and thickly settled, while the Hamptons in the east are carefully manicured countryside, preserved as a playground by a style-conscious New York elite. Demographically, the Hamptons are only a small (though growing) part of Long Island. More important are the (slower growing) suburbs created in the post-World War II rush out of the city.

Developers looking for cheaper land for aircraft factories, shopping centers, subdivisions or office parks found them first in Nassau County, just east of Queens, and then further out in Suffolk County. Suffolk attracted young families, of Irish and Italian descent more often than Jewish or black, looking for more space and less crime than the city could offer. More recently Suffolk County has been attracting Latinos, Salvadorans as well as Puerto Ricans, in many of its lower income areas, increasingly so since 2000.

In the last two decades of the 20th century, life in Long Island turned sour, as defense plants were decimated by the end of the Cold War and cost overruns on nuclear plants led to electricity rate increases. But the Bush administration's defense buildup has resulted in more defense jobs here, and the Long Island Power Authority wants to build underwater cables to bring more energy from Connecticut across Long Island Sound.

Such upheavals, combined with partisan rivalries, have fed political turbulence. The 1st Congressional District of New York, consisting of the eastern end of Long Island, ousted its incumbent congressmen in both 2000 and 2002, the only district to do so. The 1st covers eastern Suffolk County, now more populous (1.47 million people) and faster growing (12% growth from 1990 to 2004) than Nassau County, its neighbor to the west. The district runs as far east as Smithtown on the North Shore and Patchogue on the South Shore. It also includes Shelter Island, located between the north and south fork of Long Island's "fishtail," and Plum Island, home to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's only animal infection research site. Some farmers continue to grow sweet corn and pumpkins. The 1st includes two areas frequented in the summer by urban sophisticates: all of the Hamptons, and most of Fire Island National Seashore, the only federal wilderness area in New York state, and a magnet for gay vacationers for decades. Politically, however, the more important areas are the Brookhaven National Laboratory and the defense plants in the center of the Island. Suffolk County was long one of the most conservative parts of New York, though not very conservative by today's national standards. Republican voter registration remains high, and Suffolk voted strongly for Governor George Pataki's reelection in 2002 and for county native Rick Lazio in the 2000 Senate race against Hillary Rodham Clinton. It voted solidly for Al Gore in 2000 but made a big swing toward George W. Bush in 2004, giving him a narrow winning margin.

The congressman from the 1st District is Tim Bishop, a Democrat first elected in 2002. He grew up in Southampton and graduated from Holy Cross College and Long Island University. He spent his entire professional career at Southampton College, where he began in 1973 as an admissions counselor and in 1986 became provost. He chaired the town of Southampton's board of ethics and was on the board of the Eastern Long Island Coastal Conservation Alliance. Few paid much attention when Bishop announced in March 2002 he would oppose Felix Grucci, the first-term Republican congressman, who had won the seat in a bizarre contest in 2000: Mike Forbes, a Republican elected in 1994 as part of the Gingrich revolution, switched parties in July 1999, then lost the low-turnout Democratic primary by 35 votes to Regina Seltzer, a 71-year-old retired librarian, and Grucci easily won the general, 56%-41%. In the House, Grucci had a moderate-to-conservative voting record typical for a New York Republican. Grucci seemed headed for reelection when, in late September, he ran an ad accusing Bishop of falsifying rape statistics at Southampton College and "turning his back on rape victims." This turned out to be untrue. The basis for the allegations had been several articles in the college newspaper; the articles turned out to be so riddled with inaccuracies that the editors of the student newspaper voluntarily retrieved every copy of the newspaper they could find. Grucci's campaign refused to repudiate the ad, on the ground that no correction had ever appeared in print. House Democrats' campaign committee quickly saw an opportunity to pick up a seat. Soon the airwaves became saturated with ads attacking Grucci both for the rape commercial and for his environmental voting record. In one spot, which began airing before the rape ad, the Grucci family's famed fireworks enterprise was linked to the chemical contamination of local drinking water. National Republican Congressional Committee operatives privately fumed that Grucci had failed to tell them about the college rape ad and that he had blundered in standing by his charges and failing to offer a positive message. This was one of the closest House races in the nation. The official result was delayed a week by a recount and Grucci did not concede until ten days after the election; Bishop won 50%-49%.

In the House, Bishop had a voting record near the center of the Democratic caucus. He opposed the war in Iraq and supported abortion rights and a rollback of the Bush tax cuts. Reflecting his professional background, he played a leading role on the Education and the Workforce Committee during the higher education reauthorization debate; he also opposed cutbacks in the Pell Grant program and co-sponsored a bill to prohibit the Department of Education from using updates to the Federal Needs Analysis Methodology to reduce federal grants for students.

Republicans quickly identified Bishop as one of their top targets for 2004. After several potentially strong candidates decided not to run, Bill Manger became the Republican nominee. Manger, who served four years as a village trustee in Southampton and was a top adviser to Rick Lazio in his Senate race, emphasized his independence from national Republicans and attacked Bishop for opposing tax cuts, including those for members of the military. He got campaign visits from Rudy Giuliani and Speaker Dennis Hastert but that wasn't nearly enough. Bishop won handily, 56%-44%. But this is a district that could be seriously contested again.

Committees

• Education & the Workforce (21st of 22 D): 21st Century Competitiveness; Workforce Protections.
• Transportation & Infrastructure (27th of 34 D): Highways, Transit & Pipelines; Water Resources & Environment.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2004	100	75	100	100	40	11	48	4	0	16	--
2003	90	--	100	100	--	19	30	12	--	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2003 LIB	--	2003 CONS		2004 LIB	--	2004 CONS
Economic	77%	--	21%		73%	--	27%
Social	75%	--	24%		70%	--	29%
Foreign	75%	--	21%		62%	--	36%
For National Journal's complete 2004 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 108th Congress (More Info)
1. Drilling in ANWR N 2. Approve Bush Tax Cuts N 3. Medicare/Rx Bill N 4. Bar Overtime Pay Regs. Y 5. DC School Vouchers N 6. Ban Human Cloning N		7. Restrict Gun Liability N  8. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion N  9. Ban Same-Sex Marriage N 10. Fund Iraq War Y 11. Bar Cuba Embargo Funds Y 12. Intelligence Reorg. Y

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2004 general	Tim Bishop (D-Ind-WF)	156,354	56%	$1,908,440
	William Manger (R-C)	121,855	44%	$1,385,362
2004 primary	Tim Bishop (D)	unopposed
2002 general	Tim Bishop (D-WF)	84,276	50%	$972,095
	Felix Grucci (R-C-Ind-RTL)	81,524	49%	$1,399,768
	Other	1,991	1%

2004 Presidential Vote Bush (R) 154,249 (49%) Kerry (D) 152,165 (49%)

2000 Presidential Vote Gore (D) 139,490 (52%) Bush (R) 116,308 (44%)

For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the First District, please see the Almanac 2000 online. Please note that these older returns reflect district lines as they existed prior to 2002 redistricting.

• Cook Partisan Voting Index: D + 3
• District Size: 1,944 square miles
• Population in 2000: 654,360; 94.0% urban; 6.0% rural
• Median Household Income: $61,884; 6.0% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 20.3% blue collar; 64.4% white collar; 15.3% gray collar; 12.1% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 84.5% White, 4.0% Black, 2.4% Asian, 0.3% Amer. Indian, 0.0% Hawaiian, 1.2% Two+ races, 0.1% Other, 7.5% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 21.1% Italian, 17.5% Irish, 13.7% German
• Click here for statewide demographic data.