Altschuler concedes race, Bishop retains NY-01 seat

An exuberant Congressman Tim Bishop fielded reporters’ questions for half an hour this morning, following an announcement earlier today that his GOP challenger, Randy Altschuler, had conceded defeat in the last congressional race in the country to be decided.

Altschuler called him at 8:45 this morning to concede, Bishop said. Altschuler was very gracious and extended his congratulations, Bishop said. “We wished each other well.”

“This was a real lesson in civics,” Bishop told reporters. “If ever there was a demonstration of the platitude ‘every vote counts’ this was it.”

The votes are being counted right now at Suffolk County Board of Elections headquarters in Yaphank, where Altschuler’s lawyer, Vincent Messina, this morning withdrew the candidate’s objections to counting the remaining absentee and affidavit ballots. Bishop’s attorney, Thomas Garry, withdrew the congressman’s objections as well, freeing BOE workers to count the approximately 1,000 ballots that still remained to be tallied.

Bishop said as of yesterday he had a 270-vote lead in a race in which about 195,000 votes had been cast.  He expected his final lead to be in the 500 to 600 vote range, he said.

About two-thirds of the objections filed in the post-Election Day chess match were filed on behalf of Altschuler against ballots cast by likely Bishop voters. Assuming the vast majority of those votes would go to Bishop, Altschuler said in a phone interview this morning it became clear to him “just mathematically it wasn’t going to be possible to win.”

Altschuler’s camp had complained of possible voter fraud in the election, alleging that people with second homes on the East End were unlawfully registered to vote in both Suffolk County and New York City. The candidate’s lawyer had filed objections to 650 absentee ballots based on voter residency. His spokesman said evidence of “widespread” voting in two places would be presented to the court this week. The presentation of evidence was to begin today.

It did not materialize. Bishop today said the issue was a red herring.

When someone registers to vote, the board of elections accepting the new registration is supposed to notify the board of elections where the voter was previously registered, the congressman said.

“We are relying on two different government agencies to do the right thing in real time,” Bishop said. “Scores of Republicans were registered in two jurisdictions also,” Bishop said. “The two agencies are not as nimble as we’d like them to be.”

Bishop will return to Washington in January as a minority member of the 112th Congress. He’s been in the minority before and says it is vastly different than being in the House majority.

“It certainly will make it harder to get money through earmarks,” Bishop said of his new status. His ability to deliver any more money for the Calverton rail spur is now “nonexistent,” he said, noting Riverhead Councilman John Dunleavy had called him in late October to ask for $400,000 more for the rail spur project for which Bishop had already obtained $4.3 million.

The congressman was miffed by a letter sent to Riverhead voters signed by the five members of the all-Republican Riverhead Town Board asking people to vote for Altschuler. The letter said a vote for Altschuler would be a vote to return fiscal responsibility to Washington.

“You can’t have it both ways,” Bishop told RiverheadLOCAL.com last month. “You can’t ask me to get money for the town on the one hand, and then criticize me for spending money on the other,” he said.

But the congressman promised to continue to work diligently to represent his district in the nation’s capital.

“My narrow margin of victory won’t change how I approach constituent service or work with other elected officials,” BIshop said.

Altschuler said today he is committed to staying involved and staying focused on issues that are important to the residents of Suffolk County.

“Beyond that, I haven’t made a decision,” Altschuler said of mounting another challenge against Bishop in 2012. “We’ll see what comes.”