Steve Israel | |
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Chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee | |
Incumbent | |
Assumed office January 3, 2011 |
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Preceded by | Chris Van Hollen |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 2nd district |
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Incumbent | |
Assumed office January 3, 2001 |
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Preceded by | Rick Lazio |
Member of the Huntington Town Board | |
In office 1993–2001 |
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Personal details | |
Born | Steve J. Israel May 30, 1958 New York City, New York |
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse(s) | Marlene Budd Israel |
Residence | Huntington, New York |
Alma mater | George Washington University |
Occupation | Public relations executive, political assistant |
Religion | Jewish[1][2][3] |
Steve J. Israel (born May 30, 1958) is the U.S. Representative for New York's 2nd congressional district, serving since 2001. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district is located on Long Island and includes the towns of Huntington, Babylon, Islip, and Smithtown in Suffolk County, part of the town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, and the communities of Huntington, Dix Hills, Melville, Northport, Commack, Brentwood, Central Islip, Bay Shore, Deer Park, North Amityville, and Wyandanch. Israel was tapped by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to head the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for the 2012 election cycle, which will make Israel the 5th highest ranking Democrat in the leadership.
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Early life, education and career
Israel was born in Brooklyn and graduated from Nassau Community College and George Washington University. He was elected to the town board in Huntington, New York in 1993.
U.S. House of Representatives
Committee assignments
Party leadership
- House Democratic Caucus
- Assistant Democratic Whip
- Chair, House Democratic Caucus Task Force On Defense and the Military
- Co-chair, House Democratic Study Group on National Security Policy
Caucus membership
- Co-chair and founder of the House Center Aisle Caucus
- Co-chair, House Cancer Caucus
- Co-chair, Long Island Sound Caucus
- Member of Blue Dog Coalition from election until founding Center Aisle Caucus until 2005.[4]
Tenure
In his first term, Israel voted to authorize George W. Bush to use military force against Iraq, even though over 60% of his Democratic colleagues in the House voted against the bill.[5]
In his second term, Israel was tapped for a leadership position as Assistant Whip. He is one of two New York members of Congress to serve on the House Armed Services Committee. He also serves on the House Financial Services Committee. He is the founder and chair of the Democratic Study Group on National Security, the Congressional center aisle caucus, and co-chairs the bipartisan House Cancer Caucus and the bipartisan Long Island Sound Task Force.
In his third term, Israel was appointed to chair the House Democratic Caucus Task Force on Defense and Military, a group of 15 members of Congress who will outreach to the defense community and advise the House Democratic Leadership on military policy. In 2006, Israel harshly criticized Jimmy Carter for his book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid and at the same time criticized the Palestinian government.[6]
In his fourth term in Congress, Israel was appointed to the Appropriations committee.
Israel supported a study on the feasibility of switching from Tuesday to weekend voting.[7]
Controversy
Steve Israel was an honorary member of the gala host committee for the J Street Gala Dinner on October 27, 2009. J Street is a controversial nonprofit liberal[8][9][10] political organization founded to lobby the U.S. government to adopt their approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In the weeks leading up to the Gala dinner, American neoconservatives[who?] and those aligned with the Likud, the political party of current Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, criticized Rep. Israel and those supporting J Street. The Weekly Standard blogger Michael Goldfarb called the J Street dinner an "anti-Israel bash."[11] Lindsay Hamilton, Rep. Israel's spokeswoman, told The Jerusalem Post: "It's absurd that this has become a controversy...The congressman agreed to be on the gala host committee. That doesn't mean he agrees with every viewpoint of every speaker at the event."[12][13]
Political campaigns
After Rick Lazio left his House seat to run for the United States Senate in 2000, Israel was elected to the House of Representatives as a Democrat. Israel received 48% of the vote, defeating Republican Joan Jonhson, who received 34%, and three independent candidates who received 6% of the vote each.[14]
Electoral history
New York election law allows for fusion voting, where a candidate can run as a member of multiple parties. In 2000, Israel ran only as a Democrat in his winning bid for Congress, but since 2002 he has run under the Democratic Party, the Independence Party, and the Working Families Party. The pooled vote totals for candidates are listed first, and the split of the votes among the parties they ran as is listed beneath.
Year | Democrat | Votes | Pct | Republican | Votes | Pct | 3rd Party | Party | Votes | Pct | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2000 | Steve Israel | 90,438 | 48% | Joan B. Johnson | 65,880 | 35% | Robert Walsh | Right to Life | 11,224 | 6% | ||||||
Democratic | 90,438 | Republican | 65,880 | Richard N. Thompson | Conservative | 10,824 | 6% | |||||||||
David A. Bishop | 10,266 | 5% | ||||||||||||||
Independence | 7,595 | |||||||||||||||
Green | 1,404 | |||||||||||||||
Working Families | 1,267 | |||||||||||||||
2002 | Steve Israel | 85,451 | 58% | Joseph P. Finley | 59,117 | 40% | John Keenan | Green | 1,558 | 1% | ||||||
Democratic | 75,845 | Republican | 48,239 | |||||||||||||
Independence | 7,632 | Conservative | 5,772 | |||||||||||||
Working Families | 1,974 | Right to Life | 5,106 | |||||||||||||
2004 | Steve Israel | 161,593 | 67% | Richard Hoffmann | 80,950 | 33% | ||||||||||
Democratic | 147,197 | Republican | 72,953 | |||||||||||||
Independence | 9,508 | Conservative | 7,997 | |||||||||||||
Working Families | 4,888 | |||||||||||||||
2006 | Steve Israel | 105,276 | 70% | John W. Bugler | 44,212 | 30% | ||||||||||
Democratic | 94,100 | Republican | 37,671 | |||||||||||||
Independence | 7,443 | Conservative | 6,541 | |||||||||||||
Working Families | 3,733 | |||||||||||||||
2008 | Steve Israel | 161,279 | 67% | Frank J. Stalzer | 79,641 | 33% | ||||||||||
Democratic | 143,759 | Republican | 70,145 | |||||||||||||
Independence | 11,900 | Conservative | 9,496 | |||||||||||||
Working Families | 5,620 | |||||||||||||||
2010 | Steve Israel | 94,694 | 56% | John Gomez | 72,115 | 43% | Anthony Tolda | CST | 1,258 | 1% | ||||||
Democratic | 84,211 | Republican | 53,747 | |||||||||||||
Independence | 6,353 | Conservative | 13,525 | |||||||||||||
Working Families | 4,130 |
Personal life
He lives in Dix Hills with his wife, Marlene Budd, who had served on the Huntington Town board before being elected as a county family court judge in 2005. Israel has two daughters.
References
- ^ National Jewish Democratic Council
- ^ Project Vote Smart
- ^ Jews in political news: Jack Lew, Steve Israel on the hotseat James Besser, Jewish Week, 11/21/2010
- ^ Washington Post Whoruns Gov
- ^ See http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2002/roll455.xml
- ^ "– The Jewish Daily Forward". Forward.com. http://www.forward.com/articles/carter-book-slaps-israel-with-%E2%80%98apartheid%E2%80%99-tag/. Retrieved 2010-08-23.[dead link]
- ^ "Why Tuesday? Goes To Washington". July 16, 2009. http://www.whytuesday.org/2009/07/16/why-tuesday-goes-to-washington/.
- ^ Abramowitz, Michael (April 15, 2008). "Jewish Liberals to Launch A Counterpoint to AIPAC". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/14/AR2008041402647.html. Retrieved April 29, 2008.
- ^ Eggen, Dan (April 17, 2009). "Year-Old Liberal Jewish Lobby Has Quickly Made Its Mark". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/16/AR2009041603995.html. Retrieved May 5, 2010.
- ^ Stockton, Farah (February 27, 2010). "Delahunt’s journey to Mideast upended". Boston.com. http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2010/02/27/delahunts_journey_to_mideast_upended/. Retrieved September 22, 2010.
- ^ Eggen, Dan (October 25, 2009). "Israel conference to open amid controversy". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/24/AR2009102400994.html. Retrieved May 24, 2010.
- ^ "Gala Dinner Honorary Host Committee". J Street. http://www.jstreet.org/page/j-street-gala-dinner-honorary-host-committee. Retrieved 2010-08-23.
- ^ [1][dead link]
- ^ http://www.elections.state.ny.us/NYSBOE/elections/2000/wcon2000.pdf
- ^ "Election Statistics". Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives. http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/index.html. Retrieved 2008-01-10.
- ^ New York State Board of Elections 2008 Election Results page
- ^ New York State Board of Elections 2010 Election Results page
External links
- U.S. Representative Steve Israel, official U.S. House site
- Congressman Steve Israel, official campaign site
- Biography at WhoRunsGov.com at The Washington Post
- Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
- Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
- Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
- Congressional profile at GovTrack
- Congressional profile at OpenCongress
- Issue positions and quotes at On the Issues
- Financial information at OpenSecrets.org
- Staff salaries, trips and personal finance at LegiStorm.com
- Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
- Appearances on C-SPAN programs
- Collected news and commentary at The New York Times
- Profile at SourceWatch
United States House of Representatives | ||
---|---|---|
Preceded by Rick Lazio |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 2nd congressional district 2001–present |
Incumbent |
United States order of precedence | ||
Preceded by Mike Honda D-California |
United States Representatives by seniority 175th |
Succeeded by Darrell Issa R-California |
Party political offices | ||
Preceded by Chris Van Hollen Maryland |
Chairman of Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee 2011–present |
Incumbent |
|