Incumbent Bishop faces tough battle against Altschuler

Backers of Randy Altschuler and Rep. Tim Bishop agreed on one thing Wednesday: the St. James Republican will give the Southampton Democrat the toughest race since Bishop first went to Congress.

Altschuler, a millionaire businessman who won Tuesday's hard-fought GOP primary with 45 percent against Chris Cox and George Demos, will have a decided financial advantage against Bishop, a four-term incumbent.

"I have no illusion that I'm going to be able to match his resources," Bishop said. "He could spend $3 million of his own money. I can't touch that."

Bishop reported $1.89 million cash on hand in his latest campaign finance report last month. Altschuler has already spent $2 million of his own money on the race.

Altschuler, who first voted in the district in 2008, said he expects supporters of Cox and Demos - who ran scorched-earth campaigns labeling Altschuler as a carpetbagging outsourcer - to back him against Bishop. Though he had the most money and best organized campaign and largely agreed with Cox and Demos on issues, Altschuler credited his message for his primary victory.

"The results show that GOP voters agreed with my message of fiscal responsibility, less taxes and less spending," he said.

Altschuler will now run on a GOP general election ticket topped by Carl Paladino, who won one-third the Suffolk GOP vote. Altschuler said he's yet to speak with the Buffalo businessman and does not think Paladino's victory over Suffolk's Rick Lazio will affect his chances in November. "What we have in common is that we are both successful businessmen," Altschuler said of Paladino.

Given the nasty tone of the Altschuler-Cox-Demos primary, there is little expectation of a civil general election campaign. Bishop Wednesday hit the same anti-Altschuler message Cox and Demos trumpeted throughout the primary.

"The fact that he made a fortune putting Americans out of work and sending jobs to India and is now using that fortune to try and buy a congressional race, that is something people of the district deserve to know," he said.

But Suffolk Conservative chairman Edward Walsh, in a preview of the Altschuler campaign's line of attack, accused Bishop - a former provost at Southampton College, which was later absorbed by Stony Brook University and then closed - of costing the region jobs.

"Tim Bishop has outsourced more jobs out of New York State than anyone else," he said. "He's helped kill the economy here. He was involved in the college, now the college is gone."