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Politics & Government

Randy Altschuler Wins GOP Primary

St. James resident to take on Tim Bishop for the Congressional seat.

Randy Altschuler defeated Christopher Cox and George Demos in Tuesday's Republican primary, and will take on incumbent Rep. Tim Bishop in November.

"The voters chose me because I am one of them raising my family right here in Suffolk County," Altschuler said in his victory address outside of his campaign headquarters in Farmingville. "Simply put, Tim Bishop, Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the Democrats have failed us and so now we are coming to take our government back."

Altschuler received 10,531 votes, giving him 45 percent of the vote, while Cox received 31 percent and Demos received 24 percent, according to the Suffolk County Board of Elections.

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Altschuler is a self-defined fiscal conservative who says he is committed to free market principles. According to his campaign materials, his top priority is to promote economic growth and to control taxes. He signed the Americans for Tax Reform's "Taxpayer Protection Pledge," opposing any effort to raise taxes and he also wants to cut the corporate tax rate, which he believes has "strangled the competitiveness of American companies abroad."

He claims to support efforts to repeal Obamacare, supports charter schools and tax credits for attending faith-based or other non-public schools and has a plan to overhaul current energy policy.

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Town of Smithtown Councilmen Robert J. Creighton, Kevin J. Malloy, Thomas J. McCarthy, Edward R. Wertheim, Town Clerk Vincent Puleo, Superintendent of Highways Glenn Jorgensen and Receiver of Taxes Deanna Varricchio have all endorsed Altschuler.

"Randy Altschuler's life experience, private sector skills and belief in Republican principles make him uniquely qualified to serve in Congress," the group said in a statement. "As a proven job creator and believer in the free enterprise system, he will be able to take Tim Bishop to task for his support of the big spending, high taxing, job killing agenda of Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Barack Obama."

Bishop's camp and other critics disagree, and often cite Altschuler's alleged record of outsourcing jobs.

"Suffolk County voters have a clear choice between Tim Bishop, who is fighting to create good jobs on Long Island, or Randy Outsourcer, who got rich shipping American jobs to India," said Bishop for Congress Campaign Manager Lisa Wieber after Altschuler's victory.

The district seat is made up of central and eastern Suffolk County and consists of the Towns of Smithtown, Brookhaven, Riverhead, Southold, Southampton, East Hampton and Shelter Island.

Tuesday's primary was New York's first using electronic voting machines.

"Things went well, no problems," said Eva Normandine, the polling coordinator at Smithtown's New York Avenue voting location.

These are the unofficial results as reported to the Board of Elections, over the phone, by various polling inspectors. Results don't include the Absentee Ballot tally. The final results will be certified within three weeks of the election, notwithstanding any court proceedings.

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