New York's 1st Congressional District elections, 2012
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November 6, 2012 |
June 26, 2012 |
Tim Bishop  |
Tim Bishop |
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The 1st Congressional District of New York held an election for the U.S. House of Representatives on November 6, 2012. Tim Bishop was re-elected on November 6, 2012.[1]
| Candidate Filing Deadline | Primary Election | General Election |
|---|---|---|
Primary: New York had a closed primary system, meaning only registered members of a particular party could vote in that party's primary.
Voter registration: Voters had to register to vote in the primary by June 1, 2012. For the general election, the voter registration deadline was October 12, 2012, or October 26, 2012 in person.[2]
- See also: New York elections, 2012
Incumbent: Heading into the election the incumbent was Tim Bishop (D), who was first elected to the House in 2002.
This was the first election using district maps based on data from the 2010 Census. New York's 1st Congressional District was located in the eastern portion of the state and included Suffolk county.[3]
Fusion voting
New York is one of eight states that have "electoral fusion" -- which allows more than one political party to support a common candidate. This creates a situation where one candidate will appear multiple times on the same ballot, for the same position. Electoral fusion was once widespread across the United States, but is now commonly practiced only in New York.
Opponents of fusion voting argue that the process results in dealmaking to ensure that patronage is rampant.[4] Proponents maintain that fusion voting allows for minor parties to actually make a difference during the election, allowing voters the opportunity to vote for a minority party platform but still affect the general election result.[5]
Candidates that appeared in the general election are listed below with colored dots corresponding to any party they represented on the ballot.
Candidates
Note: Election results were added on election night as races were called. Vote totals were added after official election results had been certified. Click here for more information about Ballotpedia's election coverage plan. Please contact us about errors in this list.
General election candidates
June 26, 2012 primary results
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Election results
General Election
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic |  Tim Bishop Incumbent |
52.5% | 146,179 | |
| Republican | Randy Altschuler | 47.5% | 132,304 | |
| N/A | Write-in votes | 0.1% | 176 | |
| Total Votes | 278,659 | |||
| Source: New York State Board of Elections, "NYS Board of Elections Rep. in Congress Election Returns Nov. 6, 2012," accessed August 30, 2021 | ||||
Race background
New York's 1st was considered to be a Tossup according to the New York Times race ratings. This race was a rematch of one of the hottest 2010 races, with Democratic incumbent Tim Bishop squaring off against Randy Altschuler (R). Bishop may have had an advantage due to an expected higher Democratic turnout thanks to the presidential election. However, Altschuler had recently been endorsed by the Independence Party.[11]
New York's 1st District had been included in the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's "Red to Blue List," which identified districts that the organization specifically targeted to flip from Republican to Democratic control.[12]
Republican challenger Randy Altschuler had been included in the National Republican Congressional Committee's Young Guns program. The program highlighted challengers who represented the GOP's best chances to pick up congressional seats in the general election.[13]
Impact of redistricting
- See also: Redistricting in New York
Following the results of the 2010 Census, New York lost two congressional seats, bringing its total number of representatives down from 29 to 27. According to a report in the Washington Post political blog "The Fix," New York was one of the top 10 redistricting battles in the nation.[14]
The 1st District was re-drawn after the 2010 Census. The new district was composed of the following percentages of voters of the old congressional districts.[15][16]
- 97 percent from the 1st Congressional District
- 3 percent from the 2nd Congressional District
Registration statistics
As of October 29, 2012, District 1 had the following partisan registration breakdown according to the New York State Board of Elections:
| New York Congressional District 1[17] | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Congressional District | District Total | Democrats | Republicans | Other & Unaffiliated | Advantage | Party Advantage | Change in Advantage from 2010 |
| District 1 | 438,771 | 130,411 | 155,713 | 152,647 | Republican | 19.40% | 2.93% |
| "Party advantage" is the percentage gap between the two major parties in registered voters. "Change in advantage" is the spread in difference of party advantage between 2010 and 2012 based on the congressional district number only. | |||||||
District partisanship
FairVote's Monopoly Politics 2012 study
- See also: FairVote's Monopoly Politics 2012
In 2012, FairVote did a study on partisanship in the congressional districts, giving each a percentage ranking (D/R) based on the new 2012 maps and comparing that to the old 2010 maps. New York's 1st District became more balanced due to redistricting.[18]
- 2012: 48D / 52R
- 2010: 48D / 52R
Cook Political Report's PVI
In 2012, Cook Political Report released its updated figures on the Partisan Voter Index, which measured each congressional district's partisanship relative to the rest of the country. New York's 1st Congressional District had a PVI of Even, which was the 232nd most Republican district in the country. In 2008, this district was won by Barack Obama (D), 58-42 percent over John McCain (R). In 2004, George W. Bush (R) won the district 50-50 percent over John Kerry (D).[19]
District history
| Candidate ballot access |
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2010
On November 2, 2010, Tim Bishop was re-elected to the United States House for a fifth term. He defeated Randy Altschuler (Republican who also ran on the Conservative Party ticket).[20]
| U.S. House, New York Congressional District 1 General Election, 2010 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Democratic | Tim Bishop Incumbent |
48.7% | 98,316 | |
| Republican | Randy Altschuler | 48.4% | 97,723 | |
| Blank/Scattering | 3% | 5,968 | ||
| Total Votes | 202,007 | |||
See also
- United States House of Representatives elections in New York, 2012
- United States House of Representatives elections, 2012
- United States Senate elections in New York, 2012
Footnotes
- ↑ York ABC News, "2012 General Election Results," accessed November 6, 2012 (dead link)
- ↑ New York State Board of Elections, "Voting Deadline Page," accessed June 30, 2012
- ↑ New York Redistricting Map, "Map" accessed August 31, 2012
- ↑ Clarence Bee, "State Senate candidate calls for an end to fusion voting", accessed September 19, 2013
- ↑ Oregon Working Family Party, "What is Fusion Voting?", accessed September 19, 2013
- ↑ The Hill "NY Rep. Bishop asks for $100 to attend campaign kickoff," accessed December 22, 2011
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedra - ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 New York Board of Elections "List of Filings for June 26, 2012 Federal Primary," accessed May 30, 2012
- ↑ Wall Street Journal "Demos quits GOP primary for congressional seat," May 25, 2012
- ↑ New York Elections "2012 Candidate List"
- ↑ New York Times, "House Race Ratings," accessed August 10, 2012
- ↑ DCCC, "Red to Blue 2012"
- ↑ NRCC "Young Guns 2012"
- ↑ Washington Post, "The Fix," "Redistricting battles hit a fever pitch," June 3, 2011
- ↑ Moonshadow Mobile's CensusViewer, "New York's congressional districts 2001-2011 comparison"
- ↑ Labels & Lists, "VoterMapping software voter counts"
- ↑ New York State Board of Elections, "District Active Enrollment 2012," April, 2012
- ↑ "2011 Redistricting and 2012 Elections in New York," September 2012
- ↑ Cook Political Report, "Partisan Voting Index Districts of the 113th Congress: 2004 & 2008" accessed October 2012
- ↑ U.S. Congress House Clerk, "Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 2, 2010," accessed March 28, 2013
