Eye Smooth Transition
Representative Tim Bishop may have lost his bid for re-election by a decisive margin last week, but vote tallies in the Town of East Hampton indicate his continued popularity here.
In his second attempt to unseat the six-term Democratic congressman, State Senator Lee Zeldin defeated Mr. Bishop by 55 to 45 percent. But in a Congressional district in which slightly under 37 percent of eligible voters turned out to choose their representative in the United States Congress, Mr. Bishop carried East Hampton by a sizable margin: The unofficial tally had him receiving 3,661 votes, or 62.4 percent, to Mr. Zeldin’s 2,205. In East Hampton, Mr. Zeldin won only in districts 10 and 18, both in Montauk, by 8 and 5 votes, respectively.
Mr. Bishop also carried Southampton, his hometown, with 52.6 percent of the vote, and Shelter Island, where he won 57 percent. But Mr. Zeldin, who is from Shirley, carried Brookhaven, Islip, Riverhead, Smithtown, and Southold.
On Monday Mr. Zeldin described a “very gracious” election night telephone call from Mr. Bishop in which the outgoing and future representatives discussed the transition. “As far as open constituent cases and open high-profile issues he was working on for the South Fork,” Mr. Zeldin said, “it’s going to be very helpful to have that transition and hear his top priorities and up-to-date status on various initiatives.”
Mr. Zeldin was referring in part, he said, to Hurricane Sandy-related recovery projects. “That’s going to be the important next step, learning where each of those projects are in the timeline and determining what advocacy efforts are necessary to ensure these projects are completed in a timely fashion.”
He also said that he would support the town government’s decisions relating to East Hampton Airport. Several binding agreements, called grant assurances, with the Federal Aviation Administration will expire at the end of 2014. Should the town opt not to renew them, it would regain greater control over airport operations and could impose increased flight restrictions and regulation.
“My goal,” Mr. Zeldin said, “is to spend this next month and a half ensuring that I am completely caught up on everything so we can hit the ground running on day one.”
Mr. Bishop said on Monday that hisand Mr. Zeldin’s district office directors were scheduled to meet today to begin the transition. “I said both privately to Lee on election night and publicly that I will pledge myself and my staff to do everything possible to see to it that the transition is as seamless as possible,” he said.
“I have told my staff that I want to sprint to the end,” Mr. Bishop said. “I want to do the job as well as it needs to be done until the last day I’m in office, and my staff is determined to do the same thing. We are going to continue to work at the very high level we’ve worked for the 12 years we’ve been here.”
The 113th Congress will meet for another 14 days before the 114th is sworn in on Jan. 5. What it will address, if anything, remains to be determined.
“That’s up to the House Republican leadership and what they will choose to do,” Mr. Bishop said. “Whether we try to tackle some things that are pending, like immigration reform, which I highly doubt; finalizing an appropriation level for the balance of the year, or whether or not we deal with authorization for the use of military force in the Middle East to validate what’s going on there now — that’s a debate I believe the Congress needs to have. . . . I will say, as I said throughout the campaign, this is one of the least productive Congresses on record, and I don’t believe that all of a sudden it’s going to become hyper-productive between now and Jan. 5.”
When pressed, Mr. Bishop bemoaned the increasingly partisan and uncooperative atmosphere in Congress. “I said this during the campaign: The only behavior we each control is our own. Each individual member has to be willing to make a commitment to find common ground and to do so in a fashion characterized by civility and respect,” he said. “I believe I conducted myself at all times in that way, but a great many members would do well to adopt that approach.”
He has made no plans for the future, he said. “My focus right now is on making sure that all of my staff have a place to land, and I am working hard on that and with some success. I’ll worry about myself later.”