To: Interested Parties
From: DCCC
Date: October 30, 2014
Re: Pre-election Day Outlook – New York’s 1st Congressional District
Rep. Tim Bishop is in a strong position to be re-elected on November 4th. Rep. Bishop has a sizeable financial advantage, a massive volunteer operation on the ground, and has run a solid campaign focused on his record of getting results for the district. On the other hand, his opponent, Lee Zeldin, has struggled to gain traction since the primary, which drew him to the far right. Since then, voters have learned that he consistently sides with the special interests and his ideological agenda is outside of Long Island’s mainstream.
I. Long Islanders know they can count on Tim Bishop to fight for them.
Throughout his tenure, Rep. Bishop has proven he is a tireless fighter for Long Island families and has a proven track record of getting results for his district.
- Voters know Rep. Bishop understands many families are struggling with the rising cost of living on Long Island and that’s why he’s is focused on making an economy that works for everyone, not just wealthy special interests.
- On jobs, Rep. Bishop is a fighter. He saved 1,000 jobs at Brookhaven National Laboratory and fought for investment there that created over 1,000 constructions jobs there. Rep. Bishop also saved 950 Federal Aviation Administration jobs.
- Bishop has been a strong advocate in Congress for collage affordability and wrote key provisions of legislation to help millions of students and families pay for college.
II. Lee Zeldin sides with the special interests and has an out-of-touch ideological agenda.
During the course of the campaign, it has become clear to voters that Lee Zeldin puts the special interests ahead of middle class families and that he has an ideological agenda that is beyond the mainstream.
- Lee Zeldin puts the interests of corporations and multi-millionaires ahead of the middle class on Long Island.
- Lee Zeldin has taken thousands of dollars from a company that illegally dumped 50,000 tons of asbestos and toxic waste in Suffolk County parks and near veterans’ homes – and stuck the taxpayers with the bill for cleaning it up.
- In Albany, Lee Zeldin voted against holding corporate polluters financially responsible, leaving Long Island taxpayers on the hook for cleaning up messes.
- Lee Zeldin opposes a woman’s right to choose, and supports charging women more for health care.
III. Financial Advantage
Rep. Bishop has amassed a sizeable financial advantage over Zeldin. At the end of the Q3 fundraising period Bishop raised $2.5 million for his re-election efforts, $1 million more than Zeldin, who raised only $1.5 million in total. Not only has Zeldin’s fundraising consistently lagged behind Bishop’s, but Zeldin was also forced to completely empty his campaign coffers in order to win his contentious primary.
IV. Ground Game
Rep. Bishop’s campaign has a massive volunteer operation on the ground to turn out voters to re-elect him on November 4th. So far, Rep. Bishop’s volunteers and grassroots supporters have made more than 600,000 targeted phone calls and knocked nearly 170,000 doors throughout the district.
Strong Position Headed Into Election Day
With the election less than a week away, Rep. Bishop is in a strong position to win by every metric. The campaign has a massive volunteer operation on the ground and a million dollar financial advantage. Furthermore, voters know that Rep. Bishop has a proven record of saving jobs and bringing results to the district. On the other hand, the contrast couldn’t be clearer with Lee Zeldin, who puts the special interests ahead of them and has an ideological agenda far outside of Long Island’s mainstream. Rep. Bishop is in a strong position to be re-elected this Tuesday.